PUDUCHERRY: The Sankararaman murder case took a new turn on Thursday as the lone witness turned approver Ravi Subramanian became hostile, taking the number of those who turned hostile to 20 of the 40 prosecution witnesses (PWs). Ravi categorically denied every statement when the SPP recited his confessions, which were made by him when he appeared at the Kancheepuram court on December 27, 2004.
Adding more excitement to it during the four-hour examination and cross-examination, he turned the tables claiming he was threatened by police to turn approver and that the confessions were as instructed by them. He felt confident now to deny them as the then Kanchi SP Premkumar, who led the Special Investigation Team and ADSP Sakthivel were not in power now. (After the State government changed, there was a vigilance enquiry on Premkumar and Sakthivel) When cross-examined by defence counsel Dinakaran, Ravi contradicted that he was arrested in Guruvayur on December 26 where he was hiding and that Premkumar had taken him and his family into custody illegally 15 days before he was produced in the court on December 27. wAlso, Prakash, from the defence counsel, produced two Nakeeran magazines, Tamil weekly, which were allegedly used by the police to threaten Ravi. While one of the magazines (dated December 19, 2004) contained a headline stating ‘Ravi Subramanian commits suicide,’ - at which the police had threatened him that they would kill him in encounter and call it a suicide - and another, issue dated Dec 23, 2004, which contained his entire confession as an interview that never happened, four days prior to his actual confession in the court (which was published later).