NEW DELHI: A Puducherry court on Wednesday acquitted all accused including Kanchi seers Jayendra Saraswathi, 78, and Vijayendra Saraswathi, 44 in the case of murder of A Sankararaman, manager of the Sri Varadharajaswamy temple.
A Sankararaman, who levelled charges of financial mismanagement against the Kanchi seers, was found murdered on September 3, 2004.
He was believed to have been murdered by an armed gang. The Kanchi seers were charged with criminal conspiracy, misleading the court by giving false information, criminal trespass and supply of funds to carry out the criminal activity.
The Tamil Nadu police arrested the senior seer on November 11, 2004, from Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh. The junior seer was arrested on January 10, 2005. The arrests evoked widespread uproar from pro-Hindu parties and outfits.
The murder and arrests happened during the previous tenure of J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK.Police arrested 22 others, including junior seer’s brother and the mutt manager. However, the senior seer was granted bail on January 10, 2005.
The junior seer got bail on February 10 the same year. One of the accused, M Kathiravan, was murdered in March this year.The Supreme Court in October, 2005, transferred the case from a Chengalpet court to the Puducherry court following a special leave petition, which claimed that the atmosphere in the state was not conducive for a fair and free trial. The apex court also ordered appointment of a special prosecutor from Puducherry to conduct the trial to replace prosecutors from Tamil Nadu.The Puducherry principal district and sessions court began the trail in November, 2005.
Four judges – M Chinapandi, D Krishnaraja, T Ramasamy and C S Murugan – heard the trial that had lasted for eight years.The Madras high court stayed the trial from August, 2011, to February, 2012, following a petition alleging that the key accused had attempted to influence the judgment. The court directed a district judge to conduct an inquiry into the allegations. The judge submitted the inquiry report to the registrar general (vigilance), who in turn submitted the report to the administrative committee comprising of seven judges. The court lifted the stay on the trial in the Puducherry court based on the inquiry findings and later transferred the then principal district sessions judge, T Ramasamy, who was trying the case, to Perambalur and posted Murugan in his place.
As many as 187 witnesses were examined and re-examined by the prosecution and defence counsels. Eighty-two witnesses and a lone approver, Ravi Subramanian, turned hostile.
