Thursday, December 15 2005 17:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi today (Dec 15, 2005) filed a petition in the Madras High court seeking anticipatory bail apprehending arrest for allegedly removing jewellery and a 'Siva linga' from a temple in Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu.

Seeking a direction to be released in the event of an arrest, the Seer's petition said 'if released on bail he will not make himself scarce'.

Besides the Seer, seven others have been named in a complaint recently lodged by an employee of the temple, one Suresh alias Krishnan.

The complainant has sought action under IPC sections 379 (theft) and 380 (theft in a dwelling house).

Meanwhile, police said that they were looking into the complaint.

In his petition, Jayendra Saraswati claimed that Tamil Nadu government and the state police, 'aggrieved over' the bail he secured from the Supreme Court in the Sankararaman murder case, were 'falsely involving him out of spite' in the case filed in Kottur police station in Tiruvarur.

The complainant had alleged that on November 12, 2005, the Seer had gone to the Periyakudi Siva temple with some aides, who on his instruction, removed valuable jewels buried under the 'peetam' (pedestal) of the idol and the idol itself, the petition said.

The Seer contended that the allegation against him "is false, frivolous, baseless, motivated and it is only an attempt by the state machinery to somehow spite him and make his life miserable".

He further maintained that believers of the village and those even from the neighbouring areas had come to seek his blessings in the temple on that day.

He said he had 'reliably learnt' that the complainant had never visited the temple on the day of the alleged offence.

The seer contended that he was in no way concerned with the alleged missing of the articles from the temple nor did he know who had taken them.

In a related development, the seven others named in the case have filed separate anticipatory bail petitions.