PUDUCHERRY: Lieutenant Governor of the UT, Virendra Kataria, has given the nod to file an appeal against the Sankararaman murder case judgement before the Madras High Court.
The trial court here, which heard the case, had acquitted all the 23 accused, including Kanchi Acharyas Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi, in the case.
The Special Public Prosecutor N Devadass received the orders from the Lieutenant Governor on Monday. The L-G had ordered to file an appeal through Puducherry’s Public Prosecutor against the judgment dated November 27, 2013.
The L-G further ordered that all necessary papers relating to the murder case can be provided by the special public prosecutor and also to the officials of the CB-CID Department of the TN government. The LG had issued consent for the government of Puducherry to file an appeal in the case on June 27, Devadass said and added that he received the copy of the order on Monday evening.
The Special Public Prosecutor said all details would be handed over to the Puducherry’s Public Prosecutor, who would puruse it and then file an appeal in the High Court. It may be recalled that Puducherry Principal District and Sessions Judge C S Murugan on November 27, 2013 acquitted all the 23 accused, including Kanchi Acharyas, Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijeyendra Sarswathi in the Sankararaman murder case. The Chief Judge of Puducherry, in his 253-page judgement had held that the prosecution failed to ‘prove charges’ of murder, its motive and conspiracy beyond doubt and hence all the accused were acquitted. The trial in the case lasted for nine years.
The Kanchi Sankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswathi, and his junior Vijayendra were the prime accused in the case, which drew nation-wide attention. One of the accused, Kathiravan, was murdered in the March, 2013.
Manager of the Varadarajaperumal temple in Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu, Sankararaman, was allegedly murdered on September 3, 2004, in the temple premises. As per the chargesheet filed on January 21, 2005 by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Tamil Nadu Police, Jayendra Saraswathi,the senior acharya of the Sankara Mutt, was the main accused and while his junior Vijayendra Sarawathi, was the second accused, of the 24 named in it. Ravi Subramaniam, who was earlier the second accused, had turned approver in the case. Later, Ravi turned hostile.
The first six among the accused, including the acharyas, had been charged with offences under Sections 302 (murder), 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy), 109 (Abetment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Various IPC sections, including 302 (Murder), had been charged against the rest of the 18 accused.
According to Special Public prosecutor, a total of 187 witnesses were examined during the trial held here and 82 of them turned hostile during the examination.
The trial was shifted to the local court here from the Chengalpet court following the Supreme Court order in October 2005 on a petition filed by senior Acharya Jayendra Saraswathi. But the proceedings in the trial were delayed further due to another petition and it resumed only after the appointment of a public prosecutor from Puducherry.