The Madras High Court today adjourned the bail application of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati till November 17, even as the Tamil Nadu government claimed that the seer had planned to flee to Nepal before he was arrested. Justice R. Balasubramaniam adjourned the case till November 17 after senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for the seer, sought time to file a detailed affidavit after meeting the pontiff in Vellore Jail. The seer was arrested in Mahboobnagar on Thursday in connection with the murder of Sankararaman, a former official of the mutt who was with the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram in September. He faces charges of murder, abetment and suppression of evidence. Claiming that till today no advocate had been allowed to meet the Shankaracharya, Jethmalani sought a direction to the police to lodge the pontiff at Chennai. The Public Prosecutor, K. Doraisamy, however, opposed the plea and said that if the need arose, the seer would be brought here. The judge directed that the government provide all facilities to the seer’s counsel to meet him. Jethmalani said that all the guidelines prescribed by the Supreme Court in several cases, including the D.K. Basu case, had been violated in the arrest of the Shankaracharya. The accused had not been informed about the arrest. The police whisked him away and he was not allowed to meet his lawyers, Jethmalani added. The arrest was made in an objectionable manner in another state. The procedure prescribed under the law had been deliberately violated, Jethmalani said. The accused was also deprived of the right to legal aid, he added. Questioning the need for the late-night arrest of the pontiff, Jethmalani said besides being 70 years old, the seer was a chronic diabetic and suffered from high blood pressure. He said the seer ate only food cooked by himself and sought permission for him to be allowed to cook his own food. The PP opposed the request, stating that if anything happened to the Shankaracharya, the government would be held responsible. The prosecution claimed that the Shankaracharya was getting ready to flee the country. ‘‘By Wednesday, we can provide proof that he was planning to flee to Nepal,’’ Doraiswamy said.
