Seer stopped inside temple

Officials of the famous Ramanathasamy temple in Rameshwaram today refused the Kanchi Sankaracharya entry to the sanctum sanctorum, triggering angry protests from BJP functionaries and math followers.

According to reports, priests blocked Jayendra Saraswati8217;s way when he tried to offer pooja early in the morning. The priests claimed they were acting on orders from the Commissioner of the state-run Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments HRCE.

The temple8217;s executive officer, R Subramanian, said he had orders from the HRCE Commissioner, T Picthandi, not to let in the seer into the sanctum sanctorum during a special pooja held at dawn.