The Hindu : Front Page : Appu arrested, says Chittoor police chief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 20, 2004

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Front Page

Appu arrested, says Chittoor police chief

By A. Devarajan

Appu. — File Photo: Courtesy Nakkheeran

TIRUPATI, DEC. 19. Appu alias Krishnasamy, prime accused in the Sankararaman murder case, has surrendered before the Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police, K. Premkumar, in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, according to the Chittoor Superintendent of Police, V.V. Gopalakrishna.

Mr. Gopalakrishna told The Hindu that Appu had called Premkumar and asked him to come to Vedurukuppam in Chittoor district bordering Tamil Nadu so that he could surrender before the police. The development was confirmed to him by 6 p.m. today, the Chittoor SP said. "I only know that he surrendered before Premkumar somewhere in Vedurukuppam village in our district, and that he was later whisked away to Tamil Nadu," he added.

Our Tamil Nadu Bureau adds from Chennai:

According to the police investigating the case, the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, along with Ravi Subramaniam, a building contractor, and Appu, a gang leader, had conspired to murder Sankararaman, who was the manager of the Kancheepuram Varadarajaperumal temple.

Arrest drama

Ravi Subramaniam has so far eluded the police dragnet. With Appu's arrest, police now have two of the three "conspirators." Enquiries with the Andhra Pradesh police as well as the top officers of the Tamil Nadu police yielded little result as the surrender or arrest drama was entirely managed by the investigating team led by Mr. Premkumar.

The Tamil Nadu police refused to confirm the arrest in Chennai.

At least a couple of Tamil journals had recently carried questions and answers supposedly with Appu and in the most recent "interview" he had said there was no option but to surrender and that he was only waiting for an opportune time. He said he had evaded arrest as he did not want to be "framed" by the police in the case.

According to police, Appu is an affluent contractor-cum-businessman and had once been a "gangster." Stated to be a Burmese repatriate, he had operated from both north Chennai and from Chittoor district, where he had a "large establishment and a posh bungalow." He was alleged to be involved in nine cases, including a murder and three cases of attempt to murder. But in recent years he had "acquired a stature and was politically well-connected," they say.

`Hired contract killers'

In the Sankararaman murder case, the investigators have stated that he was assigned the "job" of carrying out the murder and he in turn hired the contract killers.

In the written responses supposedly received from him, the Tamil journals had quoted him as saying that he was in no way involved in the murder and he could defend himself.

Enquiries show that given the time he has taken to "surrender," Appu would have evolved his game plan and would secure the assistance of leading lawyers to defend him.

If he sticks to his statements that he was in no way associated with the Sankararaman murder, there could be a roadblock for the investigation team. Equally important for the team will be the arrest or surrender of the other key player, Ravi Subramaniam.

After he is produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody, police are expected to seek his custody for interrogation and police sources connected with the investigation say they would "confront him with the evidence and material collected over the past several weeks."

Appu's arrest is also important in the context of the bail application of the Acharya in the Supreme Court, which is to come up on January 6.

Lawyer creates a flutter

Our Kancheepuram Staff Reporter writes:

A Chennai-based lawyer, who breezed into the Kancheepuram office of the team investigating the Sankararaman murder, today stated that he came to Kancheepuram to ascertain from the team whether Ravi Subramaniam had been really arrested or not.

After 15 minutes, the lawyer came out and when reporters asked him the purpose of his visit to the investigation office, he said his name was Ravichandran and he had come to meet the special investigation team to ascertain whether they had really arrested Ravi Subramaniam.

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