The trial court here on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on petitions filed by late Sankararaman’s wife, Padma, seeking “re-examination” of her and family members and “police protection” for them to June 15.
Principal District and Sessions Judge C S Murugan could not take up the petitions for hearing on Wednesday as Manikandan, counsel for Padma, did not turn up. Padma’s son, Anand Sharma, informed them that the counsel had viral fever.Anand Sharma submitted two more petitions to the chief judge of UT, C S Murugan, who had asked him whether he knew anything about the contents of the petition, who had drafted it and whether he knew about the prayer in the petitions.
Anand Sharma told the judge that his counsel had drafted the petitions but he did not know anything about the contents or the prayer in the petition.
The judge then asked Sharma to submit one of petitions, regarding RTI, to the court’s office and returned the other petition to him.
Later talking to reporters, N Devadoss, special public prosecutor, said Anand Sharma sought to recall and re-examine the 83 witnesses in one of the petitions.
Twenty two of the 24 accused were present on Wednesday. One of the prime accused, Kanchi Acharya Jayendra Saraswathi, was not present, while junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi was present.
On June 15, the judge will hear the arguments on the petitions filed by Padma, seeking “re-examination”. He will also hear the petition by Padma’s son-in-law, seeking action against Ravi Subramanian, an approver in the case who turned hostile.
It may be recalled that Madras High Court has directed the Principal District and Sessions Judge, before whom the Sankararaman murder case was pending, to dispose of the petitions dated April 10 and 11 of Padma, wife of the victim and prime witness in the case, expeditiously.
Sankararaman, manager in the Varadaraja Perumal Temple in Kancheepuram, was allegedly murdered on the premises of the temple on 3 September, 2004. The trial was shifted to Puducherry court from Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu by an October 2005 Supreme Court order.