Tuesday, February 15 2005 14:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) backed Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) today (Feb 15, 2005) condemned as "pressure tactic" and an act of "retribution" the "initiation of criminal prosecution" against its co-convener and columnist S Gurumurthy by the Tamil Nadu Police for allegedly "misleading" the probe in the Sankararaman murder case.

"The SJM regards this as a measure of retribution against him for nearly a dozen articles he had written in English and Tamil exposing the actions and omissions of the police in the investigation into the Shankaracharya case...this has exposed the designs of the State police against the Kanchi Mutt and also the Shankaracharyas," its All India Convener Muralidhar Rao said in a statement in New Delhi.

The Manch accused Tamil Nadu Police of "harassing and hounding Gurumurthy in order to put pressure on him to stop exposing them further".

Rao threatened to take the issue to the people and "expose the designs of the Government".

On February 12, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of Sankararaman had filed an FIR against S Gurumurthy for "misleading" them during interrogation and attempting to "hamper" investigations in the Sankararaman murder case in which Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi is an accused.

Chairman and Managing Director of 'New Indian Express' Manojkumar Sonthalia and Editor of Tamil weekly Tughluq 'Cho' S Ramaswamy were questioned yesterday (Feb 14, 2005) by a police team from Kancheepuram for carrying Gurumurthy's articles on the Sankararaman murder case.