Tuesday, February 1 2005 17:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The Madras High Court today (Feb 1, 2005) reserved orders on a petition filed by the Kanchi Mutt for a direction to Tamil Nadu Government to permit it to operate various bank accounts in its name, which had been frozen.

The orders were reserved by Justice K P Sivasubramaniam after the State public prosecutor K Doraisamy furnished a list of bank accounts of the Mutt, allegedly connected with four criminal cases.

The Mutt would, however, continue to operate a current bank account and a savings bank account in its name to meet its day-to-day expenditure till the judge gave his ruling on the petition.

On January 18, Justice Sivasubramaniam had permitted the Mutt to operate the two bank accounts, accepting a contention that freezing of bank accounts had rendered performance of religious duties impossible.

Besides, seeking release of its banks accounts, the Mutt has also sought a court direction to restrain the Government from interfering with the right of the Mutt to operate various bank accounts.

The police said freezing of the accounts was "absolutely essential", claiming that there was material to substantiate that money withdrawn was used to tamper with investigations pertaining to 'Sankararaman murder case', Radhakrishnan assault case, Thirukottiyur Madhavan assault case and a case pertaining to tampering with accounts ledger of the Mutt.

Mutt accountant Kaladi Viswanathan and Mutt manager Sundaresa Iyer have already been arrested in the case.