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KANCHIPURAM, INDIA, November 22, 2004: A Kanchipuram court on Monday rejected a prosecution plea seeking the extension of the police custody of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi till 1400 IST on Tuesday. Dismissing the application, First Class Judicial Magistrate-I Uthamaraj held that the seer had already been “sufficiently interrogated” and there was no need to grant further custody. The public prosecutor had sought the extension when the seer was produced in a Kanchipuram court after the end of his three-day police custody. He submitted that the police needed to verify some bank accounts. It could not be done on Sunday as it was a holiday, he said. The magistrate held it was not necessary to interrogate the seer again. The court said bank accounts could be verified without the seer’s presence in custody. Jayendra replied in the negative when the magistrate asked him if he was tortured. To another question, the seer said doctors had been examining him thrice a day. The public prosecutor, meanwhile, submitted that the Shankaracharya was “cooperating” in the investigations.

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