It would be in their/her interest if the police/JJ stop witch hunting and concentrate on the case if there is any plausible evidence at all. How is it that their own council spoke all (rubbish) against the Shankaracharya even before filing the charge sheet and got away just because he is a governmental man, and the others get summons? This is the limit of withch hunting even after the the highest courts of the country & the state have released the Shankaracharyas on bail saying that there is no prima facie evidence against them. This shows the desperation and urgency of the authorities to take revenge against the accused and others. They should let whatever is left of the law in Tamil Nadu to take its own course rather than hurrying up.
The action of TN police is high-handed and out of proportion. First, they summoned Gurumurthy over an article and later clamped a case against him. Now CHO has been summoned along with the editor of New Indian Express. Shorn of legal verbiage, these actions are blatant acts to smother public opinion. Remember the mass media stories appearing in the last three months maligning the Mutt and its Seers. Those who gave expression to dissenting views are being arraigned under curious and obscure legal provisions. This should be opposed severely. Further, I should point out here that the website of New Indian Express discontinued its 'mail' column from 24 Dec.2004. I apprehend that the severely critical readers' views-from near and far -may have irked the authorities so much that they might have pressurised the website of that paper to remove it.
These are obviously testing times for the constituional organs of the State when individual freedoms are being trampled upon by an authoritarian executive and its machinery. Watch out also for the way high and might mainstream newspapers view these onslaughts on their colleagues.
