HC postpones Sankaracharya's bail plea
till Nov 17
Chennai:
The Madras High Court today postponed the bail plea
of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, prime accused
in the murder of Thiru Sankaraman, till November 17. Soon
after the decision was announced, clashes broke out between
Hindu Munnani supporters and Dravida Kazhagam movement (DK)
workers, but the police finally managed to bring the situation
under control. Meanwhile, the VHP has announced a Tamil
Nadu bandh and demonstrations in all state capitals to protest
against the arrest of the pontiff.
VHP
to protest against Sankaracharya's arrest (Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will launch a
two-day nationwide protest against the arrest of Kanchi
Sankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati. The protest begins
on Saturday afternoon. VHP has accused the UPA government
and governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
of stirring a conspiracy against the Sankaracharya, who
was arrested on November 11 in connection with a murder
case. On Friday, VHP leader Praveen Togadia had said that
this was for the first time in the history of the Hindus
that a Sanakaracharya was arrested, and that too when he
was performing a 'trikal puja'. "Will they arrest Imam Bukhari
of Jama Masjid on EID as there are so many cases pending
against him," Togadia asked. Meanwhile, president of the
Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, has said that
a meeting of saints and mahants had decided to send a memorandum
to the President A.P.J Abdul Kalam demanding immediate release
of the Shanakaracharya, failing which an agitation would
be launched.
Vajpayee
calls Patil over Sankaracharya's arrest (Go
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New
Delhi: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on
Saturday spoke to Home Minister Shivraj Patil and is reported
to have expressed concern over the safety of the Kanchi
Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswati, who was arrested
in connection with a murder case on Thursday. Vajpayee is
said to have told Patil in a telephonic conversation this
morning that he was worried about the safety of the Sankaracharya,
who has been remanded in judicial custody, BJP sources said.
The Kanchi seer was arrested from Mehboobnagar in Andhra
Pradesh by the Tamil Nadu police on the night of November
11.
Hindu
seers protest arrest of revered pontiff (Go
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Varanasi:
Hindu seers in India's northern holy city of Varanasi
began a massive agitation for the release of one of the
most senior Hindu priests, arrested in connection with the
murder of a temple official, on Saturday. Jayendra Saraswathi,
venerated by millions of Hindus, was arrested late on Thursday
in southern Andhra Pradesh by police from the neighbouring
state of Tamil Nadu, where he heads a Hindu monastery in
the pilgrim town of Kanchipuram. The court has sent Saraswathi,
70, into judicial custody for 15 days at a high-security
prison to allow police more time to investigate the murder.
His lawyers have described as baseless the charges of murder
and abetment and conspiracy to murder that have been made
by police.
The protestors alleged a conspiracy by Christian leaders
as the seer had managed to foil their conversion plans.
"In southern India Sankaracharya ji maharaj had worked for
Hindus. Christians were feeling threatened as he was re-
converting the people who were forcibly taken into Christianity.
So this is a conspiracy by the Christian community," said
Narendranan Saraswati, a self-proclaimed saint. Conversions
are an extremely sensitive communal flashpoint in the Hindu-majority
India with radical Hindus accusing the Christian missionaries
of luring poor tribals and villagers with promises of money
and employment. "In any point of view this arrest is not
right and Sankaracharya is an exalted post and this is an
attack and conspiracy against the 900 million of his followers,"
added Jugal Kishore Shukla, regional head of the radical
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which is spearheading the campaign.
Temple official Sankaraman, who is said to have been a critic
of the religious leader, was hacked to death in an ancient
temple in Kanchipuram in early September. The killing sparked
protests by Tamil Nadu's main opposition party. Police have
already arrested 14 people over the incident. The leader
is the head of one of five monasteries across India that
are said to have been founded in the eighth century by the
Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, Adi Sankaracharya,
from whose name his official title derives. Hindus today
revere the heads of these monasteries, although their religion
has no exact counterpart of the strict hierarchy of some
other religions.
VHP
protests in Hyderabad (Go
To Top)
Hyderabad:
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad took out a protest rally on
Saturday, condemning the arrest and incarceration of the
Sankaracharya of Kanchipuram, saying that the move had political
connotations. "It is an attack on the Hindu religion and
Hindu's are protesting against it. The government is supporting
the move of arresting Swamiji. It was very unfair on the
part of the police to arrest Swamiji. If there are charges
against him, they should keep him at least in a guest house,
they keep big terrorists in guest houses, then why not Swamiji.
He has certain rituals to perform and he has to pray, so
he should be kept in a guesthouse", said Muralidhar Rao,
a VHP leader. "Everybody is with Swamiji. The arrest happened
in Andhra, so we have started our fight against it from
Andhra only. They never told Swamiji. They told him later
that the police has issued a non-bailable warrant against
him," said Swaroopananda, the chief of the VHP's Vizag mutt.
Police
arrested the Sankaracharya on charges of murder late on
Thursday, sparking fears of a backlash as his supporters
alleged a conspiracy to defame the pontiff. The Sankaracharya
of Kanchi, Swami Jayendra Saraswati, is one of the heads
of the four Hindu schools of religious thought and leads
the sect in Kanchi. It has been alleged that he was involved
in the murder of a temple priest. The ageing seer was arrested
from a temple in Mehboobnagar near Hyderabad and was later
brought to his hometown in Tamil Nadu. The seer's lawyers
claim he is victim of political vendetta. The Vishwa Hindu
Parishad has announced a Tamil Nadu bandh and demonstrations
in all state capitals in protest against what it calls the
"politically motivated" arrest of the seer.
