Tuesday, December 20 2005 19:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The Madras High Court today (Dec 20, 2005) granted anticipatory bail to Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi and seven others who have been named as accused in a case pertaining to the alleged removal of jewellery and a "Siva Linga" from a temple in Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu.

Granting the bail, Justice Sardar Zackria Husain also directed that in the event of their arrest, they should be released on furnishing a bond for Rs 5,000 each and two sureties for like amount or they should surrender before the Tiruvarur Magistrate within 15-days, failing which their anticipatory bail would stand cancelled.

On Dec 15, the seer and the others named in the complaint, lodged by an employee of the temple, one Suresh alias Krishnan, had filed anticipatory bail petitions.

On the same night, the Judge had restrained the Tamil Nadu police from arresting him till today.

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

In his petition, Jayendra Saraswati claimed that the 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 at the 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 only an attempt by the state machinery to somehow spite him and make his life miserable."