The Tamil Nadu Police have 'orally' withdrawn the summons issued to Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati to appear before them by 1030 IST on Thursday, mutt advocate A Shanmugham said.
Shanmugham, after meeting officers of the Special Investigation Team probing the cases against the Kanchi seers, told reporters that he informed the police that the summons were not legally enforceable under the Criminal Procedure Code.
He cited a Supreme Court judgment, which said that an accused could not be summoned for questioning like a witness.
Shanmugham said he also pointed out that Kalavai, where the seer is presently staying, was outside the jurisdiction of the Kanchipuram police.
The police told him that since he had raised some legal points, they would have to consult the prosecution lawyer, Shanmugham said.
He said Jayendra Saraswati, on receiving the summons, had stated that he would cooperate with the police. But he wanted the police to change the summons time to 1530, as he had to perform poojas.
However, investigation officer Sakthivelu said it could be postponed only till 1100 IST, after which the legal option would be resorted to, Shanmugham said.
He said the daily activities of the mutt had come to a standstill and its social welfare activities had been paralysed, as the police had frozen its 183 bank accounts and several trusts.
Though the police had orally informed him about the freezing of accounts, the mutt had not received any written communication in this regard, he said.
Shanmugham said the mutt had constituted a legal panel, which would go into the 'leak' of the video clippings of the seer's custodial interrogation to satellite television networks. The panel would also look into the freezing of bank accounts, he added.