Chennai: Condemning DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) president M Karunanidhi for "expressing glee in such a serious matter", Janata Party president Dr Subramaniam Swamy today (Nov 15, 2004) said the arrest and remand of Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi was "clearly premature".

While no one was above the law, the Supreme Court had repeatedly held that the authority of the police to effect arrest on receipt of information of a commission of a cognisable offence, "should be exercised with great care and only when necessary for furtherance of the investigation", he said in a release in Chennai.

Acharya's arrest

"Since it is not the police's prima facie case that Sankaracharya committed the murder but only that he conspired to abet it," he said.

Stating that the arrest and the remand of the Seer was a "make or break test" for Jayalalithaa Government in Tamil Nadu, he said it was also "incomprehensible why Sankaracharya had to be arrested on Deepavali eve" while on a visit to another State".

"Therefore, if later Sankaracharya is acquitted by court, then this arrest will not only be a reckless infringement of his personal liberty, but also an unforgivable affront to the Hindu community," he said.

Condemning Karunanidhi for his statement, Swamy sought to know whether the DMK chief would also support the extradition and arrest of LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) supremo V Prabhakaran, "held guilty by the Supreme Court" in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.