Hearing in Sankararaman murder case adjourned to October 3

A local court today adjourned to October 3 the

hearing in the Sankararaman murder case in which Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra

Saraswathi and his junior Vijayendra are the prime accused.

Special Public Prosecutor N Devadoss told reporters outside

the court that the petition filed by Padma, widow of Sankararaman, in the

Madras High court seeking transfer of the trial from here to the High Court was

pending disposal.

All other petitions she had filed in the High Court were

also required to be disposed and hence the hearing was adjourned till October

3.

Principal District and Sessions Judge C S Murugan directed

that all the 24 accused including the two seers should be compulsorily present

at the next hearing.

Only 13 accused were present in the court today and the

absentees included the two seers.

Defence counsel who presented petitions assigning reason for

the absence of the two seers informed the court that as the two pontiffs were

currently observing "Chaturmasya Vrida" (performing poojas and other

rituals between July 3 and September 30) they could not be present at the

hearing when it was resumed today.

Sankararaman, Manager of Varadarajaperumal temple in

Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu, was murdered in the temple premises on September 3,

2004.

A total of 189 witnesses including Padma, her son and

daughter were examined during the trial between 2010 and 2011.

Eighty-three of the witnesses turned hostile during the

trial, shifted here by the Supreme Court on a petition by Jayendra Saraswathi.

The trial was shifted from Chengalpet court (Tamil Nadu) to

Puducherry following an order by Supreme Court on a writ petition the Kanchi

seer in October 2005.

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