Maintaining that the arrest of junior Kanchi seer, Vijayendra Saraswati, was "in furtherance of due processes of law," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday dismissed apprehensions that the arrest would disrupt daily prayers at the mutt.
Vijayendra Saraswati was picked up from the mutt on Monday evening in connection with the Sankararaman murder case and remanded to judicial custody for 15 days.
The arrest came just few hours after Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the same case.
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In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had written to her in this regard last week, Jayalalithaa wrote: "It is not as if both the swamijis have not been away from the mutt at the same time in the past. There have been innumerable occasions when both the pontiffs have been away from the Sankara mutt at Kanchipuram. While both the pontiffs have been away from the mutt, arrangements have been made for the conduct of the daily puja in the past.
"It would be invidious not to construe this as breaking the tradition and affecting the daily puja at the mutt, while expressing the apprehension that the arrest of both the pontiffs and their being away be labelled as breaking the tradition of daily puja."
In fact, the Tamil Nadu chief minister said, when Jayendra Saraswati was arrested on November 11 last, both he and his deputy were at Mehboob Nagar near Hyderabad.
On the apprehensions that the arrest will injure the sentiments of the people, Jayalalithaa said even at the time of the arrest of Jayendra Saraswati there were some apprehensions, but these were belied by the subsequent events.
"The public had greatly appreciated the principled stand of the Tamil Nadu government that all were equal before the law," Jayalalithaa said.
She said it could not be the prime minister's arguement that while handling a conspiracy involving hired killers, the Tamil Nadu Police should make a distinction between those who instigated, conspired and financed the murder inside a temple and those who carried it out.
"An onerous duty is cast on the Tamil Nadu government to proceed with the case in an impartial manner, not swayed by sentiments or feelings. Upholding the majesty of law and the principle of equality of all before the law, however high or mighty the persons may be, is the bounden duty of the Tamil Nadu government and it ought to be their common endeavour to ensure that the Tamil Nadu police maintains this tradition," she said.
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