The Puducherry Sessions Court on Wednesday Nov 27,2013 acquitted the Pontiffs of Kanchi Sankara Mutt, Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi in the Sankararaman murder Case
The others acquitted in the case include the Manager of the Mutt Sundaresa Iyer, junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswthi’s brother Raghu and K G Krishnaswamy alias Appu
The judge held that the witnesses failed to support the prosecution case
that the two Sankaracharyas — Jayendra (78) and Vijayendra (44) -- were
part of a conspiracy to eliminate the temple official in September
2004
He also said the witnesses, including Sankararaman’s daughter, failed to
identify the accused in the court
None of them identified any accused
in the court and no incriminating evidence was made out against the
accused, the judge noted.
A total of 24 persons were made accused in the case, but one of them,Kathiravan was killed on March 21,2013
During the trial, 189 witnesses were examined between 2009 and 2012, of which 83 turned hostile.
Note
Sankararaman, who was murdered in his office room in the temple on September 3, 2004 using sharp-edged weapons, had levelled charges of financial misappropriation against the two Sankaracharyas and over the way they ran the Mutt.
The Vishnu Kanchi Police took up investigation following a complaint and
a case was registered under section 302 and 34 of Indian Penal code.
The Special Investigation team of Tamil Nadu police filed the
chargesheet naming Jayendra Saraswathi as first accused and Vijayendra
Sarawathi as the second accused in the case.
The then Kanchipuram district Superintendent of Police, K Premkumar and
another SP Sakthivelu who was the Chief Investigation Officer, submitted
the 1873-page charge sheet before the Judicial Magistrate (I) of
Kancheepuram G Uthamaraj.
Jayendra Saraswathi was arrested on Diwali day on November 11, 2004 at
Mahbub Nagar in Andhra Pradesh. After two months in jail in Vellore the
seer was granted bail by the Supreme Court on January 10, 2005.
Vijayendra Saraswati was arrested from the mutt on January 10, 2005 and the Madras High Court granted him bail a month later.
The Sankaracharyas moved the Supreme Court and got the case transferred
to Puducherry in 2005 on the ground that the atmosphere in Tamil Nadu
was vitiated and there would not be free and fair trial.
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