Order on Kanchi seer's bail plea put off

The Madras High Court today reserved orders on the resumed arguments on the bail application filed by Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi, who was arrested on November 11 in connection with the Sankararaman murder case.

Justice R Balasubramanian reserved his orders after hearing heated and lengthy arguments by the counsels for the seer and the prosecution.

Justice Balasubramanian had on Thursday adjourned the hearing on the resumed arguments to today.

The adjournment was granted after the prosecution sought time to reply to some additional citations put forward by the defence after the judge had first reserved orders on the bail plea on November 30.

Earlier, the seer's counsel, I Subramaniam, on Friday made a special mention, countering the prosecution argument that Section 439 of the Cr.PC pertaining to special powers of higher courts regarding bail had to be read along with Section 437 and not in isolation.

Meanwhile, a Sessions Court today adjourned the bail plea of eight of the accused in the Sankararaman murder case, in which the Kanchi seer has been arrested, to December 13.

Sessions Judge Akbar Ali, before whom the bail plea came up, adjourned it to December 13 at Chengalpattu near here.

Kathirvanan, "Dil" Pandi, Arumugam and Satish, who staged a "proxy surrender" before a court in Chennai on October 5, and Palani, "Kuruvi" Ravi and Sundaram, who allegedly made arrangements for this, are at present in judicial custody in Chennai.