Tuesday, February 22 2005 20:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Public Prosecutor K Doraisamy today (Feb 22, 2005) informed Madras High Court that the police had no intention of arresting till Friday (Feb 25), columnist S Gurumurthy, who has been charged with concealing information and giving false statement to the police during questioning last month on his articles on the Sankararaman murder case.

He made the submission in the court of Justice K P Sivasubramanian, while objecting to grant of interim order restraining the police from arresting Gurumurthy till disposal of a petition filed by the columnist.

Doraisamy said that if any order was granted it would be assumed that the police was not arresting him because it had been restrained by the court.

Earlier, senior advocate T R Rajagopalan, appearing for Gurumurthy, made a mention in the court alleging police had telephonically threatened his client and asked the court to extract an assurance from the PP that he would not be arrested.

The High Court will hear on February 25 the petition filed by Gurumurthy yesterday seeking to quash the criminal complaint filed against him by the Special Investigation Team, probing cases against the Kanchi Mutt and its Seers, on the charges of giving false evidence and refusing to answer questions put to him in connection with his columns in newspapers on the murder case.

Gurumurthy has also sought a court direction, restraining the SIT from proceeding with the 'malafide and motivated' complaint till disposal of his petition.