The Hindu : Front Page : `Trial proceedings will be delayed if Appu is allowed to go abroad'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Front Page

Front Page

`Trial proceedings will be delayed if Appu is allowed to go abroad'

By K.T. Sangameswaran and
A. Subramani

CHENNAI, NOV. 23. A single judge order directing the immigration authorities to permit Appu, a key accused in the Kancheepuram Sankararaman murder case, to leave the country, was stayed by the First Bench of the Madras High Court today. The Bench, comprising the Acting Chief Justice, N. Dhinakar and Justice D. Murugesan, granted the stay and ordered notice on a writ appeal preferred by the Thousands Light Police Station Inspector, challenging the impugned order dated November 4.

In his appeal, the official contended that Kansani Gopal Krishnasamy alias Appu was involved in seven criminal cases, including the Sankararaman murder case, in connection with which the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, too has been arrested.

He was likely to abscond if he was permitted to go abroad, he said.

Non-bailable warrants

When the matter came up for hearing this morning, the Additional Advocate-General, A.L. Somayaji, said that three non-bailable warrants had been issued against Appu and that if he was permitted to go abroad the entire trial proceedings, pending in various courts in the State, would be delayed.

In November last year, the First Bench of the court permitted Mr. Appu to go abroad for six months for medical treatment. However, it imposed certain conditions and asked him to inform the Indian Embassy in the U.S. about his place of stay, weekly movements and particulars of the hospital in which he proposed to take treatment. Last month, after he was prevented from leaving the country, he preferred a writ petition. Citing the earlier order, he obtained the impugned court direction on November 4 asking the immigration authorities to permit him to embark on a three-month U.S. visit.

Challenging the order, the police said the accused had neither furnished any information to the Indian Embassy in the U.S. about the hospital in which he was treated nor any detail relating to his weekly movements as per the court direction during his last visit.

Police sources told The Hindu that Appu was the most wanted among those for whom a dragnet had been spread. He could provide more details regarding the financial aspects involved in the killing. A police official associated with the investigation of the case said their information was that Appu's passport was invalid as it had already expired. However, police were on the look out for him and with a view to not taking chances, had alerted all airports and seaports to prevent the escape of the fugitive.

Following receipt of a "look-out notice," the Central Industrial Security Force personnel stepped up their vigil at the Chennai Airport. The police were also trying to find out whether he had committed any passport violation. Asked whether Appu would have fled the country following immigration clearance for him in the wake of a High Court order on November 4, the official ruled out the possibility.

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