A court in Tamil Nadu on Monday declined to extend Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi's police custody, even as the Madras High Court maintained that there was nothing illegal about the police remand.
Dismissing a petition filed by the prosecution for extension of the pontiff's police remand, a judicial magistrate in Kanchipuram said the police had been given sufficient time to interrogate the accused.
Following the rejection of the police plea for extension of the Seer's custody by a day, the Shankaracharya would now return to Vellore prison.
Earlier on Monday, the High Court rejected the pontiff's petition challenging the lower court's order on Friday to send him to police custody.
Justice AK Rajan said it was legal to hand him over to the police for interrogation and permitted the pontiff's counsel to be present during the quizzing of the accused.
The Shankaracharya was handed over to the police for interrogation for three days on Friday by the judicial magistrate in Kanchipuram.
The police have charged the pontiff with involvement in the murder of a former accountant of the Shankaracharya's Kanchipuram mutt, Sankararaman. The pontiff was arrested on Nov 11.