Sankararaman murder case Shankaracharya, Kanchi and 22 others acquitted

  • 27th, Nov 2013 6:31 PM
  • SAGMart Team
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All the accused are acquitted in high-profile murder case of Shankarraman. In this case, the Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati and Vijayendra Kanchimt were main accused. Main district and session court judge of Pondicherry, CS Murugan ruled this after a long wait of nine years. Defence lawyers said in court that his clients were introduced against which the witness could not prove guilt. The court also upheld the defence argument that there was no substantive evidence to corroborate hostile witnesses. It also criticized Investigating Officer Saktivel who hadn't done an independent investigation and failed to produce all evidence collected.

The court accepted the defense argument that some witnesses were placed under a strategy or plan to give magisterial confession. The acquittal is now being seen as a huge embarrassment for Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. She had ordered for arresting the Kanchi seer and his junior pontiff in November 2004. Jayalalithaa had defended the arrest saying that it was based on strong proofs. Even the main opposition DMK had welcomed the arrest of the seer. The seer's arrest was severely criticized by the BJP and the VHP. Damodar Prakash, the investigative reporter of Nakkeeran, a Tamil tabloid, who had exposed the murder of Shankararaman said he was sad and the police will now have to find out who murdered Shankararaman. He blamed the botched up investigation done by the police for the acquittal of the seer and others in the case. The advocates of Shankaracharya welcomed the judgment and blamed the Tamil Nadu police for making him an accused in the case.

Full Case:- Manager of Vrdrajperaml temple of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu; Shankrraman, was murdered on September 3, 2004. 24 people were accused in this case, one has died. These 23 people charged under these individually currents 120 and 120-B criminal conspiracy and B is also included. Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi were made the prime accused in the case. Jayendra Saraswati's brother and manager of Kanchimt Raghu Sundersn and co-accused were also involved in this.

With the murder, six people were filed with IPC Sections 302, 120 and 109-B cases.