The Hindu : National : Hearing in assault case adjourned to December 31

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Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

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National

Hearing in assault case adjourned to December 31

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, DEC. 28. The Madras High Court today adjourned to December 31 further hearing on the Kanchi Acharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi's bail plea in the `Radhakrishnan assault case,' amid protests from the Acharya's counsel.

When the matter came up before Justice R. Balasubramanian this afternoon, senior counsel for the prosecution, K.T.S. Tulsi, described the Acharya as the "prime mover" behind the assault and claimed that the prosecution had sufficient material to convict him for conspiracy.

He argued that unless the court was able to conclude that it was a "case of no evidence," the Acharya could not be enlarged on bail and added that he would be liable for all "collateral acts growing out of the original purpose of teaching a lesson to Radhakrishnan."

When Mr. Justice Balasubramanian stated that there was no direct witness to the alleged conspiracy and that the prosecution was relying on the statements of others, Mr. Tulsi said that under Section 10 of the Evidence Act, hearsay was admissible evidence. He further contended that only yesterday the prosecution had got the police custody of the second accused in the case, Ravi Subramaniam, who, according to Mr. Tulsi, was the "most significant link in the conspiracy."

Arguing for six other co-accused in the case, advocate A. Natarajan said that but for two of them — Anand and Lakshmanan — the other accused did not go to the scene of occurrence, and that they were neither armed with weapons nor caused any injury to Mr. Radhakrishnan and two others. They were arrested more than two years after the incident and no identification parade was conducted prior to their arrest.

When Mr. Tulsi sought adjournment till December 31, the Acharya's counsel, M. Sathyanarayanan, opposed it saying that irrespective of the fact that the Acharya was in judicial custody it was not correct to grant long adjournments in a case of alleged assault.

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