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CHENNAI, INDIA, November 24, 2004: The prosecution case against the Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati took a huge beating on Wednesday as key accused Kadhiravan, who allegedly hired the contract killers to murder temple official A. Sankararaman, suddenly turned hostile before the magistrate at Kancheepuram and claimed that his confession was concocted by the police to implicate the seer. When the police brought him in the evening before magistrate G. Uthamaraj for extending remand, Kadhiravan shouted that he had something to tell and in the midst of protestation by the prosecution, the magistrate allowed the accused to speak out. Thereupon, Kadhiravan told the court that the police actually took him into custody on November 3 but showed his arrest only on November 11, when he was produced before the magistrate for remand — which meant he was kept in illegal custody for about nine days. The seer was arrested late in the night on November 11. “During this period, I was kept in Paramount Hotel at Sriperumbudur (near Kancheepuram) where I was forced to sign four blank sheets and on November 16, the police took to me a magistrate and forced me to give a confessional statement,” Kadh-iravan told a shocked court, even as reporters, who were allowed in to cover what was originally believed to be a simple process of remand extension, feverishly jotted down notes.



Even before the stunned police could collect their wits, another accused Chinna alias Rajni, who it was alleged had dealt the fatal knife injuries to Sankararaman, also alleged that the police beat him up and began to exhibit his injuries to the court, including broken teeth. He said he was not allowed to meet any of his relatives. At this point, Kadhiravan piped in claiming that barring one meeting with his sister in the midst of intimidating cops, he too was denied access to his relatives. Eyewitnesses said Kadhiravan also told the court that during the remand period too, he was kept in solitary confinement with police constantly monitoring to intimidate him. In the prosecution case against the Sankaracharya, the role of Kadhiravan is very vital as the police claimed that he was the go-between the killers on the one hand and his own boss, Appu (who is still at large) and Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswati on the other hand. The police, in fact, had claimed that there were direct phone calls between Kadhiravan and the Sankaracharya before and after the murder.



While the police refused to comment on the development, there has been widespread shock and disbelief in political and legal circles. “Normally the confessional statement is made in a quiet atmosphere after giving the accused a day or two to get ready, but here we see the accused being hooded and dragged to the court by the police, which shows that their earlier confessions had not been voluntary,” says a senior criminal lawyer. While refusing bail to the seer, the Madras High Court had said there was clinching evidence against him but with Kadhiravan and Chinna retracting their statements, that “clinching evidence” appeared shaky, said the senior criminal lawyer.

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