Chennai, Nov. 29: Investigators probing the murder case that has embroiled Jayendra Saraswati today claimed the Kanchi acharya confessed to police his involvement in the crime even as a slew of allegations erupted against the jailed religious leader.

Noted Tamil writer Anuradha Ramanan alleged that the seer ?attempted to outrage her modesty? when she had visited the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt in 1993 to discuss the launch of a women?s magazine.

The allegation came on a day prosecutors also spoke of Jayendra Saraswati?s ?contacts? with a woman and that the man whose murder has landed the seer in jail had accused him of not accounting for much of the gold imported to make a chariot.

In Madras High Court, the prosecution read out from the transcript of the confession the acharya is said to have made in police custody. ?Whatever be the cost, he (Shankar Raman) has to be done away with,? the acharya is alleged to have told the three other top accused ? Ravi Subramaniam, a Chennai-based builder; Krishnasamy alias Appu, the kingpin of the killer gang, and Kathiravan, his assistant.

The meeting in the Kanchi mutt, the prosecution said, was on September 1, two days before the murder of the temple official. The allegation, before Justice R. Balasubramanian, came during daylong arguments on the seer?s second bail application. The first bail plea was rejected last week.

Although the ?confession? will not be admissible as evidence in court, prosecution counsel K.T.S. Tulsi said it was ?very relevant? as the entire interrogation was ?in the form of a contemporaneous recording by video?. ?We can show it (the recording) in your chamber?? the Supreme Court advocate told the judge.

Tulsi said the acharya had corroborated some of the statements made by other witnesses. The police, he added, had got hold of statements of phone calls made from a PCO by the fleeing assailants some 15 minutes after the murder, informing the seer of the ?job done?. Tulsi said Jayendra Saraswati had ?accepted it was his cellphone and that he had spoken to these persons (the other top three accused)?.

If Tulsi claimed the seer ?broke down? and ?confessed?, chief investigating officer S.P. Sakthivelu said Jayendra Saraswati?s early morning conversations with Usha, a ?deserted woman at Sri Rangam?, a pilgrim centre down south, used to last ?even for 900 pulse units?. She was given free quarters and substantial sums of money had been ?periodically transferred to her through bank?, the police officer said..