Chennai: Brushing aside Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's threat of taking legal action against him, DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) president M Karunanidhi today (Nov 24, 2004) said the filing of a second case against the Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi, has only strengthened "doubts" that there was "something behind" the Acharya's arrest.

Karunanidhi told reporters in Chennai that the second case had amply proved that his doubts and "suspicions expressed from elsewhere" over the arrest and actions taken against the Seer were genuine.

Spotlight: Kanchi Jayendra Saraswathi's Arrest

Police served "arrest intimation" on the Seer at Vellore prison yesterday in connection with the second case, filed in connection with the attack of former Shankara Mutt employee Radhakrishnan in Chennai two years back.

Karunanidhi, on Nov 22, had stated that "vengeance" could be seen in Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the arrest of Jayendra Saraswati and "doubts" have arisen over many issues.

On Jayalalithaa's statement that legal action would be taken against those, attributing motives for the Kanchi Seer's arrest, he said "I had seen several such threats in my life. I can withstand any action," he said.

Reacting to a statement by Jayalalithaa accusing him of making "somersaults" on the arrest issue, Karunanidhi said he had only expressed doubts over the arrest, that too after seeing the actions taken after the arrest.

"If my doubts are somersaults, then what will you call various acts of the Chief Minister like repealing the anti-religious conversion law and banning animal sacrifices. Are they desperate or classic somersaults," he asked.

Asked for clarifications on his earlier remarks that "personal matters" were behind the Seer's arrest, Karunanidhi displayed a photograph, published in a magazine, showing Jayalalithaa sitting in a chair, close to the Seer, and the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde sitting on the floor. "This photograph is enough to prove the proximity between the two," he said.

Mutt authorities never allowed anyone to sit very close to the Seer, he said.

On remarks of several BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leaders that the case against Jayendra Saraswathi was "foisted" as he had no role in the murder of the temple official Sankararaman, Karunanidhi said he did not agree with the views. "If the Seer is really involved, he deserves to be punished," he said.

Asked whether filing of a second case against the Seer on an incident that took place two years back amounted to a vindictive act, he said, "Publish your question without my answer."

"There is nothing wrong in filing any number of cases against anyone. There is nothing illegal in it," he said.

He denied that he had demanded that Government should take over the mutt administration. What he had said was that the activities in the mutt should not come to a standstill, Karunanidhi said.