A top Indian cleric, revered by millions of Hindus, has confessed to the murder of a temple official, a lawyer for the southern state of Tamil Nadu told a court yesterday. Jayendra Saraswathi, known as a "Hindu pontiff", broke down during interrogation and confessed to his involvement in the murder, the Press Trust of India quoted state prosecutor K Tulsi as saying in the Madras High Court. "He seems to be now realising that it was a mistake," the lawyer said of the 71-year-old cleric who was arrested November 11 on charges that he had hired contract killers to murder the temple official on September 3. Tulsi claimed the cleric confessed that on September 1 he had called the alleged contract killers and told them that the intended victim, Thiru Sankararaman, had been "tormenting" him and he should be "got rid of at any cost". The lawyer said the religious leader also admitted he spoke with some of his co-accused on the telephone before and after temple manager Sankararaman's slaying. The cleric, popularly known as the Kanchi Shankaracharya, heads the 2,500-year-old Kanchipuram Temple in Tamil Nadu. State police detective S P Sakthivelu, meanwhile, told the court that Tamil Nadu prosecutors could if necessary present new evidence linking the religious leader to the murder. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reacted sharply to the prosecutor's statement. "Don't read such news. Don't hear such news," BJP spokeswoman Sushma Swaraj said. "It is baseless. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Indian police officials escort Jayendra Saraswathi (R), a Hindu religious head, outside a court in Kanchipuram 80 Km (50 miles) from the southern Indian city of Madras November 12, 2004. (REUTERS)