The following is a chronology of the case against Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi of Kanchipuram whose judicial remand was extended Friday until Dec 10.

Sep 3, 2004: A. Sankararaman, a devotee of the Kanchipuram mutt who had been campaigning against the Shankaracharya, is hacked to death by five men within a temple compound.

October: Five men surrender in a Chennai court, saying they committed the murder. Police investigate and realise one of the men was actually in jail when the crime took place. Police begin arresting suspects.

Nov 9: Three suspected contract killers are produced in a court and accused of killing Sankararaman.

Nov 11: At about 10 p.m. Jayendra Saraswathi is arrested at Mehboobnagar, Andhra Pradesh, as the prime suspect. He is flown to Chennai and taken to Kanchipuram.

Nov 12: Judicial magistrate G. Uthamaraja remands him to judicial custody for 15 days - until Nov 26. Shankaracharya sent to Vellore jail.

Nov 19-21: The Shankaracharya is in police custody.

Nov 21: Magistrate refuses to extend police custody and returns him to judicial remand. Madras High Court rejects the seer's bail plea.

Nov 22: The Tamil Nadu government serves another arrest warrant on the pontiff inside the jail, re-arresting him in a case of attempted murder.

Nov 24: Two of the co-accused in the Sankararaman murder case retract their statements and say they were coerced by police to testify against the pontiff.

Nov 25: Supreme Court dismisses a public interest litigation seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the arrest.

Nov 26: Shankaracharya's judicial remand extended until Dec 10.

--Indo-Asian News Service