The AP police today sought the help of their TN counterparts to arrest Usha — whose name has been linked to the Kanchi Shankaracharya — in connection with a cheating case, even as VHP leader Ashok Singhal demanded the seer be released ‘‘forthwith’’.Srikalahasti Rural Circle Inspector B. Srinivasan said Usha and her husband, R.L. Narayanan, in 1997, had obtained a loan of Rs 30 lakh from SBI’s branch here by submitting ‘‘fictitious documents’’. They had taken the loan to set up a cement brick factory of which Usha was the managing director.In 2001, the bank authorities had lodged a complaint with the local police alleging cheating and non-payment of the loan. Later, Narayanan was arrested and let off on bail. However, Usha has remained elusive since, though a non-bailable warrant was issued by a court on November 30, 2003.‘‘We will send our police team to arrest Usha only after getting the green signal from the Tamil Nadu police,’’ Srinivasan said.In Chennai today, Singhal warned if the seer was not released ‘‘forthwith’’, it would prove politically costly for CM J. Jayalalithaa.At a press conference, the VHP leader reiterated his allegations of an international conspiracy involving Congress chief Sonia Gandhi as behind the arrest. He said Jayalalithaa had succumbed to pressure from Sonia. Singhal also charged that Kancheepuram SP K. Premkumar — who heads the special investigating team— was a ‘‘tainted officer’’. He said police — after failing to prove charges against the seer in the Sankararaman murder case — were trying to fabricate fresh charges against him.Demanding that Jayendra Saraswati be released forthwith, he said the government should tender an open apology to the seer.
