'Seer called the killers, cops have evidence'

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa said the police have "shocking and solid" information on Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi''s links with the murderers of Sankararaman, the manager of Varadaraja Perumal temple who was killed on September 3 this year. Jayalalithaa stated this in the state assembly even as the hearing of the seer''s bail plea in the Madras High Court remained inconclusive on Wednesday.The court will continue the hearing on Thursday.<br /><br />However, Justice R Balasubramanian made it clear that the hearing would not come in the way of the Kanchipuram Judicial Magistrate in dealing with the petition filed by the prosecution, seeking police custody of the seer. In her first statement after the seer''s arrest on November 11, Jayalalithaa said the police have "vital" information about the Shankaracharya''s links with hirelings and associates engaged to murder Sankararaman. <br /><br /></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="1" width="80.7%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" white=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" color:="" ba0000="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">FORUM:</span> <a href="http://people.indiatimes.com/articleshow/923314.cms" target="_blank">Shankararcharya: State versus Religion</a></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /><br />This follows the interrogation of two persons arrested at Chennai on November 9. The seer had "links" in drawing huge money from Kanchi mutt''s bank account and handing it over to the hirelings, the CM said. He had also links to make five people surrender for a murder they didn''t commit, only to sidetrack the investigation, she said. She claimed that those who committed the murder had spoken to the seer over Telephone. Sankararaman was murdered inside Varadaraja Perumal temple, she said, adding, Ganesh, a temple official, had lodged a complaint, following which an FIR was filed. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal">A special police team, under direct supervision of the superintendents of police of Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore districts, was probing the case. Several documents pointing to the links of the seer had been seized from the house of Sankararaman, she said. The seer also had alleged links with another case of attack on Radhakrishnan and his wife here on September 20, 2002. <br /><br />As for the next step, the police are on the hunt for two persons identified as Ravi Subramaniam and Appu alias Krishnaswamy, with whose help the seer had "conspired" to kill Sankararaman. Jayalalithaa, however, ruled out taking over the Kanchi mutt administration. "The government has high regards for the 2500-year-old mutt. The mutt should continue its tradition of preserving the Hindu religion," she said, in an obvious reference to DMK president M Karunanidhi''s demand for taking over the mutt administration. Earlier in the day in the Tamil Nadu assembly, BJP MLA H Raja was forcibly evicted for obstructing proceedings and shouting slogans demanding release of the seer. <br /><br /></div> <div align="center" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center" border="1" width="80.7%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" white=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" color:="" ba0000="" font-size:="" font-weight:="" bold="">FORUM:</span> <a href="http://people.indiatimes.com/articleshow/923314.cms" target="_blank">Shankararcharya: State versus Religion</a></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal"><br /></div> </div>