The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Tamil Nadu police on Friday night arrested Sundaresa Iyer, a confidant of incarcerated Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, in connection with the murder of temple official Sankararaman and the assault on former mutt employee Radhakrishnan.
Iyer, manager of the Kancheepuram mutt, is the first mutt official to be arrested after the seer who was taken into custody on November 11 in connection with the murder case.
Iyer was summoned by the SIT for questioning around 1900 IST. Four or five mutt employees accompanying him were told to stay out. Around 2200 IST, police told the lawyers representing Iyer that he had been placed under arrest.
With this, the total number of arrests made in connection with the Sankararaman murder case had gone up to 23. Iyer is expected to be produced before a magistrate on Saturday.
He is among the three prominent persons arrested in connection with the Sankararaman murder and Radhakrishnan assault cases, the other two being the seer and Appu alias Krishnaswamy.
Sundaresa Iyer was administering the mutt after the Shankaracharya's arrest. He used to meet the arrested seer at Vellore prison quite often.
Earlier in the day, the SIT questioned many mutt employees to find out whether they had any role in the murder and assault cases.