Sankaracharya denied
bail by Madras High Court
Chennai: The
Madras High Court today dismissed the bail application filed
by Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati. The court will pronounce
on Monday its verdict on a petition challenging the order
of the Kancheepuram judicial magistrate remanding the Kanchi
seer to three days' police custody. Justice AK Rajan reserved
his orders today on the petition filed by the seer after
hearing arguments of the pontiff's counsel, I Subramaniam
and senior advocate, K T S Tulsi, on behalf of the Tamil
Nadu police. On Friday, a court in Kancheepuram had remanded
the seer to three days in custody for interrogation. The
court had maintained there were sufficient grounds for the
action sought by the Tamil Nadu police in the interest of
investigation into the murder of a former employee of the
math headed by the pontiff.
BJP severs ties with
AIADMK over seer's arrest (Go
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Ranchi: The
BJP on Saturday said it has severed its ties with the AIDMK
for the way the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu handled
the arrest of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati in
a murder case. "The whole process (of the Tamil Nadu government)
with regard to the Sankaracharya issue is unbecoming. So
there is no more relationship with the AIDMK," BJP general
secretary Rajnath Singh told a press conference here. Demanding
immediate intervention of the Manmohan Singh government
in this regard, he urged it to "understand" social sentiments
attached with the Sankaracharya.
Advani commences relay
fast over Kanchi seer (Go
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New Delhi: The
BJP on Saturday launched a three-day protest in support
of Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati. Party president LK
Advani is on a fast in New Delhi today, senior leader Murli
Manohar Joshi will undertake the fast on Sunday. He will
be followed by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
on Monday. On Friday, a delegation of the BJP met President
A P J Kalam to lodge their protest against the manner in
which the Sankaracharya was arrested on November 11 in Mehboobnagar.
The saffron party is demanding a separate law to be made
to deal with religious leaders. Meanwhile, the CPI(M) has
slammed BJP's call for a countrywide agitation as a cheap
attempt to whip up religious sentiments for political gains.
"BJP's protest action would meet the same fate as its recent
attempts to project a communal platform," CPI(M) Polit Bureau
said in a statement. It said the ground that the pontiff's
arrest has hurt the sentiments of Hindus is nothing but
an expression of its disregard for the primacy of the secular
principle and the judicial process. On Friday, a court in
Kancheepuram remanded him to police custody for three days
for interrogation. The seer's lawyer promptly moved the
Madras High Court challenging the Kancheepuram court's order.
Radical Hindus continue
agitation for release of Kanchi seer (Go
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Dehradun: Hindu
radicals continued thair protests today demanding release
of the country's top Hindu religious leader arrested on
charges of murder. Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, head
of one of the five most important monasteries in Hindu-majority
but officially secular India, was arrested last week by
police of southern Tamil Nadu state where he heads a mutt
in the pilgrim town of Kanchipuram. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP) is supported in the agitation by its ideological ally
- the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which has
begun a three-day protest with top party leaders, including
former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and party president
Lal Krishna Avani joining a relay hunger strike. The BJP
also hinted at severing ties with Tamil Nadu's ruling All-India
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) holding it responsible
for the arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya. The VHP slammed
the central ruling Congress party of targeting the Hindu
leader.
