The Supreme Court on Friday declined to grant an interim bail to Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati in the Sankararaman murder case, while asking the Tamil Nadu government why he should not be granted bail.
A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice R C Lahoti, said this while hearing Kanchi Shankaracharya's bail plea in the case. The seer's counsel, Fali S Nariman, had sought an interim bail for the seer, who is lodged in the Vellore prison after he was arrested on November 11.
The court directed the Tamil Nadu police to produce the entire case diary in original before it on January 6 for further hearing on the petition. The court also asked the police to produce the alleged dying declaration of Sankararaman and wanted to know who recorded it.
On the claim of the Tamil Nadu police that money was withdrawn from the ICICI bank to be given to the alleged assailants of Sankararaman, the court asked the police to give details on January six about the bank account, the account holder and as to who had withdrawn the money. The court also wanted the passbook seized by the police to be produced before it.
The counsel for the Tamil Nadu police, senior advocate K T S Tulsi, agreed to produce the entire case diary before the court.
The court directed Tulsi to keep available the English translation of Tamil documents by the next date of hearing.
The seer's counsel, Fali S Nariman, pleaded that Shankaracharya in the interim be allowed to go to the Kanchipuram mutt, where the police could guard him. The Bench declined to accede to the request.
The court deferred hearing on the second bail application filed by Jayendra Saraswati in connection with the Radhakrishnan assault case till January six. It asked the petitioner to move the high court in this regard.
The court's observation came when Tulsi pointed out that the petitioner has straight away come to the Supreme Court in appeal against a sessions court order. The counsel said the right course should have been to approach the HC.
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