The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : No prima facie case to grant bail to junior Acharya: court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 28, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

No prima facie case to grant bail to junior Acharya: court

By V. Venkatasubramanian

KANCHEEPURAM, JAN. 27. The bail application of the junior Kanchi Acharya, Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi, in the Sankararaman murder case was dismissed by the principal sessions judge, G.M. Akbar Ali, today. He said no prima facie case was made out for setting the junior Acharya at liberty.

Pointing to the nature and gravity of the offence, the judge said the position and status of the petitioner and the likelihood of his tampering with witnesses were important factors in considering the bail plea.

Further, the petitioner could not claim parity with the senior Acharya to whom the Supreme Court granted bail.

The apex court considered various aspects, different from the circumstances involving the junior Acharya at this stage, said Mr. Akbar Ali.

The court had to keep in mind the interest of the prosecution, and the family of the victim who felt helpless and believed that there was no "equal justice" in the world, the judge said. When saints and godmen were under a cloud of suspicion, equality before the law and equal protection of the law did not vary from person to person.

Pointing out that the court perused the case diary, documents and statements of witnesses including co-accused Appu and Ravi Subramaniam, he said there was prima facie evidence on record to show that both the Acharyas had full knowledge of the day-to-day affairs of the Mutt.

There was prima facie evidence of a meeting at Nazarethpet between the senior Acharya and the slain manager of the Kancheepuram Varadaraja Perumal temple, and of the deceased resenting the activities of the junior Acharya, his brother Raghu and the Mutt manager, N. Sundaresa Iyer. The final notice called for the removal of the "poisonous successor" and its contents if proved would be more damaging to the junior Acharya than to the senior, the judge observed.

Referring to the argument that no prejudice would be caused to the prosecution if the petitioner was enlarged on bail as the investigation was over and the charge sheet filed, Mr. Akbar Ali pointed out that the Madras High Court refused to grant bail in a case relating to Father John Joseph of Marthandam, stating "tampering has two phases, one during the investigation and preventing the investigation agency from collecting evidence, and the other during trial, preventing the prosecution from placing the evidence collected before the court."

Hearing the bail plea of Premananda, who was running an ashram in Pudukottai district and was arrested by the Crime Branch CID on charges of murder, the High Court also observed that the "possibility of evidence being tampered with is a serious aspect, to which the court has to give due consideration." Premananda was denied bail many times during the investigation and trial, Mr. Akbar Ali said.

Raghu plea dismissed

The sessions judge also dismissed the bail applications of Mr. Raghu and Mr. Iyer.

K. Arumugam, public prosecutor, Chengalpattu court, said a batch of bail applications moved on behalf of the accused in the `proxy surrender case' — `Dil' Pandian, Arumugam, Sathish, Arun and Devarajan — and three other accused in the case — Senthilkumar, Arumugam and Chinna — was also dismissed.

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