Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi has been acquitted in the 2004 murder of a temple employee
Jayendra Saraswati, the Kanchi Sankaracharya, and his junior were today acquitted of murdering a temple manager in Tamil Nadu in 2004. A court in Pondicherry also said there was no evidence against 22 others accused of links to the murder.
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The Kanchi Sankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswathi, is the head or pontiff of a large Hindu Brahmin mutt in Tamil Nadu.
The 78-year-old is considered one of the country's most powerful Hindu religious leaders.
In 2004, a temple manager named Sankararaman was found dead in Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.
In November, the Sankaracharya and his junior, a seer named Vijayendra Saraswathi, were arrested for the murder.
At the time, the Sankaracharya was considered a close advisor to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
They were accused of commissioning the temple manager's murder because in a litany of written complaints, he had accused them of immorality and corruption.
Jayendra Saraswathi was granted bail in January 2005. In October that year, the Supreme Court agreed to his request to move the case to Pondicherry from Tamil Nadu, where he said he would not get a fair trial.
The trial has lasted nine years. Of the nearly 180 witnesses examined, about 80 turned hostile.
The Sankaracharya is also accused of ordering an attack in the 2002 assault on a temple auditor who alleged that nearly 80 kilos of gold meant for a temple had gone missing.
The 2002 case is still in trial.
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