M A I N   N E W S

Court rejects junior seer’s bail plea
Tribune News Service

Chennai, January 27
It was another bad day for the Kanchi Mutt as a local court dismissed the bail of junior seer Sri Vijayendra Saraswati while the Madras High Court stayed the suo motu notice issued by the National Human Rights Commission to the Tamil Nadu Government concerning violation of human rights.

Devotees who had gathered outside the Chengalpattu court, around 60 km from here, expected good news since the Sessions Judge had not pronounced his orders on Tuesday after hearing lengthy arguments from junior pontiff’s advocate Lakshmana Reddiar and public prosecutor K. Doraiswamy. The defence had contended that Vijayendra Saraswati had been named only in two letters of the murdered victim, Shankararaman, and argued that the prosecution had failed to prove any wrongdoing on the part of the junior seer as regards to distribution of money. But the judge accepted the version of the prosecution that there was new evidence available in the charge-sheet. On similar grounds, the bail pleas of Vijayendra’s brother Raghu and manager of the mutt Sundaresha Iyer were also dismissed.