The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : 24-hour police custody for junior Sankaracharya

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

24-hour police custody for junior Sankaracharya

By V. Venkatasubramanian

The junior Kanchi Acharya, Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi, being produced in a Kancheepuram court on Tuesday. — Photo: A. Muralitharan

KANCHEEPURAM, JAN. 18. The Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate-I, G. Uthamaraj, today ordered police custody for Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi, junior Kanchi Acharya for 24 hours.

In his order on a petition filed by the special investigation team probing the Sankararaman murder case, the Magistrate said there was sufficient ground to order police custody for the accused. The police were allowed to interrogate him from 5 p.m. today to 5 p.m. tomorrow.

On a defence plea, Mr. Uthamaraj gave oral instructions to the Chief Investigation Officer (CIO), S.P. Sakthivelu, that the accused be allowed to meet his advocate, Vaidyanathan, between 2 and 2.30 p.m. tomorrow.

Earlier, in a sworn affidavit, the CIO said Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi was arrested at 5.30 p.m. on January 10 and was immediately remanded to judicial custody. He sought a five-day police custody for the accused as the investigation team wanted to interrogate him about his involvement in a conspiracy and disbursement of money to hirelings. It also wanted to know certain "facts" from the accused before filing the charge sheet.

When the Magistrate asked Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi to respond to the petition, the Acharya said he was already summoned and he replied to the police questions during interrogation. There was not an iota of truth in the `conspiracy' theory as claimed by the police. The police implicated him in this case at the behest of "others," the Acharya said.

The additional public prosecutor, S. Thiyagarajan, the commission of offence by Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi was established only after the recording of a confessional statement from another accused, Ravi Subramaniam, under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Ravi Subramaniam clearly said he had conspired with the accused (Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi) and in disbursement of money through Raghu, another accused.

Ravi Subramaniam also said Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi and Raghu wanted him to keep the matter a secret as they did in the Radhakrishnan assault case, Mr. Thiyagarajan informed the court.

The accused did not cooperate with the police when he was summoned to appear before the investigation team, he said.

`Bid to stall proceedings'

Appearing for the junior Acharya, senior advocate D. Lakshmana Reddiyar questioned the timing of the police custody petition. Pointing out that Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi's bail application was coming up for hearing in a Chengalpattu court tomorrow, he said the prosecution's intention was just to stall the proceedings.

His client was summoned and interrogated on December 26 and again on December 28 last. Another summons was served on January 3 for his appearance on January 4 and was subsequently withdrawn. "By which time they would have known all facts about this case since Ravi Subramaniam and Raghu were taken into custody", Mr. Reddiyar said.

The junior Acharya's name was not mentioned by the prosecution, which had apprised the Supreme Court of the Section 164 Cr.PC statement made by Ravi Subramaniam during the hearing of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi's bail plea.

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