THE DRAMATIC ARREST and incarceration of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi — the most high profile of all contemporary Hindu religious leaders — as the prime accused in a brutal contract killing of a humble adversary is a first in the annals of the rule of law. The message sent out by this action taken by the Tamil Nadu police, evidently with prior approval from Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, is that nobody, however high in religious or temporal matters, shall be above the law. The charges against the Sankaracharya, include murder, criminal conspiracy, and causing evidence to disappear. The Tamil Nadu police officials in charge of the investigation as well as the Public Prosecutor have claimed they have solid evidence against Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, with the prosecutor using strong language in open court to contrast his alleged criminality with his venerated spiritual position.

It must be remembered of course that no public presumption of guilt should be made at this stage, considering that the filing of a First Information Report (FIR) sets the ball of criminal investigation in motion, and that charges can be laid, or the case against the accused closed, only after an investigation is concluded. Nevertheless, the facts investigated and reported by the press, notably the Tamil magazine, Nakkeeran, speak to a brutal and motivated murder; a crude attempt to cover up; and what seemed initially to be non-serious investigation. The combination proved explosive, triggering a decision by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to launch a major agitation demanding action as required by the law.

Consider these facts. A. Sankararaman, a highly orthodox acolyte of the Kanchi Mutt who had been close to the Paramacharya but turned bitterly inimical to his successor, bombarded him and the Mutt with letters, written pseudonymously and in his own name. He made allegations of financial malfeasance, nepotism and worse against the pontiff; he went to court accusing him of going against holy tradition by planning a visit to China, and so forth. He complained of threats to his life from Kanchi Mutt circles but was given no protection. Two years before Sankararaman met his gory end within the precincts of the Varadarajaperumal Temple of which he was the manager, S. Radhakrishnan, another ex-acolyte of the Kanchi Mutt who had become disenchanted with Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, had been subjected to a murderous knife attack by hired killers at his home in Chennai and survived, along with his injured wife, to tell the tale. But the police investigation into that case seemed to run into a political wall after gaining initial clues.

This time, after the core facts were brought to light, the police made investigative breakthroughs that, according to them, led straight up to the pontiff. From what has been revealed in this early phase of investigation, bank transactions, mobile phone calls, letters, and confessional statements form a crucial part of the case material being assembled against the accused. Devotees of the Kanchi Mutt are understandably upset. But they should realise that while there should be no public presumption of guilt against the Sankaracharya or indeed against any of the other accused, it would be absurd for them to believe communal allegations that he has been framed by the State Government to `appease minorities after the general election debacle' or for other devious political reasons. In fact, this is an extremely rare case of the two bitter antagonists, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and DMK president M. Karunanidhi, agreeing on an issue, namely that the law must be allowed to take its course in a highly sensitive case that has no precedent.

Courtesy: http://www.therali.com