Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, arrested in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday night in connection with the murder of a former Shankara Mutt official, was on Friday remanded in judicial custody at Vellore Prison till November 26.
He was produced before judicial first class magistrate G Uttamaraj in Kancheepuram, 70 km from Chennai, on Friday morning.
Jayendra Saraswathi, who has been accused by the opposition parties in Tamil Nadu of having considerable clout with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government, was brought by road to Kancheepuram, the seat of the Pontiff.
During the hour-long proceeding, the magistrate ordered the remand and told Shankaracharya's counsel Y Thiyagarajan that the jail authorities would decide on the medical treatment for the pontiff, since he claimed he was an insulin-dependent diabetic patient.
The arrest of the politically-famous Shankaracharya, who in the last two years had acted as a mediator in the Ayodhya issue between Sangh parivar and Muslim organisations, followed investigation into the murder of Sankararaman, who had managed the accounts of the Mutt during late Paramacharya Chandrasekerendra Saraswthi's period.
Sankararaman was reported to have had differences with Jayendra Saraswathi and had left the Mutt and worked as the manager of the famous Vaishnavite Varadharajaperumal temple here, where he was murdered on September 3 last.
