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Supreme Court notice to State in Sankararaman murder case

Legal Correspondent

Supreme Court hearing Appu's plea for bail

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered notice to the Tamil Nadu Government on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by Krishnaswamy alias Appu, key accused in the Sankararaman murder case, seeking bail.

A Bench comprising Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice Dalveer Bhandari issued the notice after hearing senior counsel K. Subramanian who submitted that the High Court, while denying bail (in December last), had erroneously found that Appu had received Rs. 30 lakh from approver Ravi Subramanian when no such document had been furnished to him along with the charge sheet. Assailing the High Court judgment, the petitioner said while granting bail to co-accused Kanchi Sankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, the apex court had held that there was no prima facie evidence to support the conspiracy theory. The observations of the High Court that the confessional statement of the co-accused would constitute prima facie evidence or offence, was in conflict with the observations made by the apex court.

He said the observations by the High Court, describing him as "the person who prepared the plan"; that "the words were translated into action only by him by planning masterly" etc., were findings recorded by the Judge even before the commencement of the trial. Such observations would affect the trial and influence the trial judge.

He said substantial questions of law had arisen for consideration in this case, including whether the High Court order was in conflict with the principles laid down by the apex court in granting bail to Sri Jayendra Saraswathi and whether it was right in rejecting the bail, holding there was no change in circumstances, after the trial was shifted to Pondicherry.

The SLP sought quashing of the impugned judgment dated December 9, 2005.

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