The Hindu : Front Page : Kanchi Mutt manager & Raghu detained under Goondas Act

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Sunday, Jan 23, 2005

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Front Page

Kanchi Mutt manager & Raghu detained under Goondas Act

By Our Staff Reporter

Raghu

KANCHEEPURAM, JAN. 22. The Kanchi Sankara Mutt manager, N. Sundaresa Iyer, and R. Raghu, brother of the junior Sankaracharya, Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi, have been detained under the Goondas Act.

The Kancheepuram Collector, R. Venkatesan, has issued detention orders under the Goondas Act and these were served on Raghu and Sundaresa Iyer at the Chennai Central Prison this morning. Both of them have been lodged there after their arrest in connection with the Sankararaman murder case, probed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Superintendent of Police, Kancheepuram, K. Premkumar.

Six other accused have already been detained under the Goondas Act.

Enquiries show that Raghu and Sundaresa Iyer have been detained under the Goondas Act since they have committed an act "disturbing tranquillity in a public place" through their "involvement" in the murder, which took place in the Varadarajaperumal temple on September 3, 2004. While Sundaresa Iyer was arrested on December 24 in the murder case and remanded to judicial custody, Raghu was arrested on December 30 and lodged at the Chennai Central Prison on December 31.

Sundaresa Iyer

Early this month, Sundaresa Iyer was charged with "tampering of Mutt accounts" in a separate case filed by the SIT at the Siva Kanchi police station. Though both of them have been charged under Sections 302, 120 (B), 449, 201, 109 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, Sundaresa Iyer has been cited as Accused 3 and Raghu as Accused 4 in the charge sheet filed by the SIT at the Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate Court-I here on Friday.

According to the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug offenders, Forest offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic offenders and Slum grabbers Act 1982, a "goonda" is a person who, either by himself or as a member of a gang, habitually commits or attempts to commit or abets the commission of offences punishable under the IPC.

Recently, it was amended to bring video pirates under its purview. Under the Act, "acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order... means activities which affect adversely, or are likely to affect adversely, the maintenance of public order."

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