The police today interrogated top functionaries of the Kanchi Kamakoti Matt and their staff in connection with a murder case involving the Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati. Those questioned include Neelakanta Iyer (administrative head of the Matt), N Sundareshan Iyer (Matt manager), Viswanathan (manager of the Kamakshi temple), Ramu (the Matt’s official photographer), a typist, a clerk and a cashier employed by the Matt. Police sources said the interrogation would continue tonight. The police are now working on the theory that the murder of temple manager Sankararaman was not the first time that hired killers had allegedly been used to silence opponents or meddlers in Matt affairs. Police sources said today that they have picked up two Chennai-based men, Bhoominathan and Lakshmanan, who they said belonged to a gang of criminals operating out of Chennai. Sources said the two were among the bunch that grievously assaulted Radhakrishnan, a former Matt employee, and his wife, in Chennai in September 2002. Radhakrishnan, who was earlier sacked from the Matt after he fell out with its authorities, was hacked and stabbed at his Chennai home. His wife, who came in the way, was also set upon. Both, however, survived. The investigation into that case had reached nowhere until the police apparently decided to have a go at it after the Shankaracharya’s arrest. The special police team investigating the seer’s case was today asked to take over this one as well. Joshi will meet, George wants to • NEW DELHI: ‘‘It’s unfortunate. He (Shankaracharya) did not deserve that kind of treatement,’’ George Fernandes said in New Delhi. He’s leaving for Chennai on Tuesday to meet the Shankaracharya. • MAHABUBNAGAR: RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav arrived to meet Kanchi’s junior Vijayendra Saraswathi. • CHENNAI: Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has been granted permission by Tamil Nadu government to meet the Shankaracharya in Vellore prison on Tuesday. ‘‘We now have evidence that the same gang led by Kuppuswami, a Chennai-based don, which was hired to eliminate Sankararaman, had been used in this attack as well,’’ a top police source said. Police said Kuppuswami has since vanished, but claimed to have ‘‘substantive proof’’ of his links with the Matt. Police teams that searched the homes of Pashupati, president of the Matt-run NGO, Jan Kalyan, and Ramu, the Matt’s official photographer, yesterday had taken away a bunch of photographs of the Kanchi Shankaracharya with various people. Police sources added that they were also looking closely at a third similar attack, for possible links to these two. The victim in this case was Madhavan, a temple priest. He was assaulted in similar fashion, in rather similar circumstances. Tempers ran high in the Matt premises today, besieged by the media corps and curious locals. Matt functionaries led by A Shanmugham, the Matt’s lawyer, took on the police in a slanging match in front of TV cameras, protesting the frisking of those going in or out of the Matt. ‘‘This is clearly an intereference in our right to worship. We are going to take this up in the court tomorrow,’’ Shanmugham said. The lawyer clamed that the police had not passed on a copy of the petition that they filed at the Judicial Magistrate’s court yesterday, seeking police custody of the Shankaracharya. ‘‘They don’t have a fig leaf of evidence to cover their charges. This is a big frame-up’’ he claimed. The Kancheepuram court will hear the petition tomorrow. Matt officials, meanwhile, denied reports that Vijayendra Saraswati, the junior pontiff, had asked for a CBI inquiry into the issue in his letter to the Union Home Minister. Matt manager Sundareshan Iyer said the Matt had no reason to think along that direction.
