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CHENNAI, INDIA, November 12, 2004: (HPI note: This news of the arrest of one of India’s most prominent spiritual leaders has arrived on a day when HPI is not usually issued, hence this special edition.) Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati was on Thursday night arrested in connection with a murder case. The 60-year-old pontiff (other reports say 70) of the Kanchi Matth, whom the Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu accused of having considerable clout over the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Government, was arrested at around 2200 IST in Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh by a special team from Tamil Nadu. The seer was being “brought to Chennai to be produced before Judicial Magistrate – 1, Kanchipuram,” a brief statement issued by I K Govind, director general of police, Tamil Nadu, said. The victim, Sankararaman, was manager of the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram. He was killed on September 3, 2004.



The arrest was understood to have been made on the basis of statements made by five persons held in connection with the case. The arrest was preceded by a lot of drama. A police team, comprising commandos and led by Superintendent of Police Elangovan, first went in a Cessna aircraft to Bangalore on information that he was there. But they later left for Hyderabad and went to Mehboobnagar by road to arrest him. The shankaracharya was at that time performing a Trikal Puja. Accompanied by an Andhra Pradesh police team, the TN team explained to the shankaracharya the case and took him in custody.



The murder issue had become a political controversy with the main opposition party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, announcing an agitation while accusing the Government of inaction despite information about the persons involved in the murder. In the politics of Tamil Nadu, dominated by Dravidian parties espousing rationalist policies, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was accused of taking the shankaracharya’s advice in running the Government. The shankaracharya, who has considerable influence with political leaders, was in the limelight in the past two years of the National Democratic Alliance rule, acting as a mediator between Muslim leaders and Hindu organizations in the Ayodhya issue.

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