CHENNAI/MADURAI: Police personnel attached to the cyber crime wing of the Greater Chennai Police (GCP) on Saturday interrogated Madurai Adheenam Shri Harihara Gnanasambndha Desiga Paramachariyar Swamigal at the mutt premises in Madurai following the Madras High Court’s interim order permitting the police to hold inquiry if it wanted by issuing advance intimation.
Justice A D Jagadish Chandira, in a recent order, said if the respondent (sub-inspector of cyber crime wing) desires to inquire the petitioner, he is at liberty to do so after due intimation to the Adheenam one day in advance.
The interim order was issued when petitions filed by the Adheenam seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the GCP came up for hearing.
Additional Public Prosecutor K M D Muhilan submitted that the police are not able to continue with the inquiry into the case since the Adheenam is not cooperating.
However, advocate Ramaswamy Meyyappan, appearing for the pontiff, submitted that the respondent police officer had already conducted an inquiry with the pontiff for more than one hour and 40 minutes, and he was duly cooperating. The pontiff has no objection for the respondent police officer to hold further inquiry. Recording his submission, the judge issued the orders and adjourned the hearing by two weeks.
The court had already granted the Aadheenam anticipatory bail and directed the police not to take any ‘coercive action’ against him. However, police had told the court the pontiff was not cooperating when they went to his mutt for inquiry and moved a petition for cancellation of his bail, which is still pending.
The inquiry on Saturday was the second time the police conducted such an inquiry, with the first one held on July 20.
The GCP had registered a case against the Adheenam under four sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for comments allegedly made by him about an accident, in which, he claimed people having links to Pakistan had attempted to bump him off when he was travelling to attend a Saiva Siddhantha conference on the Ulundurpet-Salem highway on May 2.
