Jayendra Saraswati: Shifting base?

Kancheepuram, Jan. 13: An employee inside the Kanchi Mutt gazed at the computer screen before him and then at a bundle of fresh Rs 100 notes, perhaps wondering if this was the last wad to be placed on his small desk for some time to come.

As many as 183 bank accounts related to the mutt and its several trusts ?have been frozen?, A. Shanmugham, one of Jayendra Saraswati?s lawyers, told reporters here today.

This is ?without any basis and the same amounts to violation of the fundamental rights of my client as the madathipathi of the Kanchi Sankara Mutt,? Shanmugham said in a letter to the additional superintendent of police of the Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the Shankar Raman murder case.

The freeze, at the SIT?s behest, covers accounts of the mutt?s branches, many of its aid centres, hospitals, educational institutions and ?Veda pathshalas (Veda schools)? across the country.

Asked about it, the mutt employee said nervously: ?Please do not ask me anything. I do not know what will happen.?

The immediate impact of the account deactivation could not be gauged but Shanmugham said all the mutt?s social service work had come to a halt. This included scholarships to a number of students from the weaker sections, and pension to old temple ?archakas (priests)? and ?Vedic pundits?, he said.

For a couple of months now, the SIT has been intensifying its investigation into the financial transactions of the mutt and some trusts that are associated with its devotees. This is to track down the payments the seer allegedly made through some key accused to the contract killers of Shankar Raman.

This afternoon, a team of policemen and employees of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Department scrutinised the accounts of the Kamakshi Amman temple here.

Asked about the mutt?s day-to-day expenses, Y. Thyagarajan, another of the seer?s lawyers, said no cheque had been signed since the arrest of mutt manager Sundaresa Iyer on December 24. Iyer was authorised to sign the cheques.

?Now, there is very little activity within the mutt itself and it has a reasonable stock of rations going,? he added, expressing his inability to guess the long-term impact of the freeze.

This evening, the mutt looked deserted barring a handful of devotees and the glowing oil-soaked wicks in a tall brass lamp in the central hall.