Kanchi seer acquitted of murder bid

In major relief to the Kanchi Sankara Mutt pontiff Jayendra Saraswathi, the I-additional sessions court in Chennai on Friday acquitted him, along with eight others, from the charge of an attempt to murder “auditor” Radhakrishnan, his wife and his aide 14 years ago.

The much-anticipated verdict was delivered by Judge P. Rajamanickam in a packed court hall on Friday. In less than two minutes, the judge informed all the accused, “You are all acquitted from all the charges and you can go.” “In the result, the prosecution has failed to prove the charges against all the accused and hence all are acquitted from the charges,” said the judge.

The charges against two other accused, Appu and Kathiravan, were abated since they are dead. The judge also ordered a separate trial in connection with a case against Ravi Subramaniam, an approver who turned hostile.

The reprieve comes to Kanchi seer three years after the accused, including the Sankara mutt pontiffs Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra, were acquitted from Sankararaman murder case in 2004 of a temple official who was a staunch critic of the head.

Saraswathi, accompanied by a number of advocates, his disciples and mutt officials reached the court at 2 pm. Soon after, a police personnel and advocates obtained his blessings and took “vibuthi”.

Along with Saraswathi, eight others — N. Sundaresa Iyer, K. Raghu, V. Sunder, alias Meenakshi Sundaram, B. Anand alias Anandakumar, S. Lakshmanan, G. Boomi alias Bhoominathan, R. Kannan and K. Kumar alias China Kumar — also appeared before the court.