Sankararaman murder case hearing posted for Aug 24

Pondicherry, July 19 (UNI) The district and sessions court today posted the hearing in the Sankararaman murder case, in which Kanchi Acharyas Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijeyendra Saraswathi are the prime accused, to August 24.

Principal District and Sessions Judge M Chinna Pandy posted the case, pending the disposal of the two petitions, including the one challenging the appearance of the Tamil Nadu Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the case in Pondicherry, pending before the Supreme Court.

Five out of the 24 accused, including the Acharyas, failed to turn up before the court and separate petitions, citing the reasons of their absence, were filed by their respective counsels.

The judge on June 7 had posted the case for today, pending the disposal of the Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court on the issue of appearance of the Tamil Nadu SPP in the case.

As soon as the case was taken up today, the counsels for the Defence Karthikeyan and Lakshmana Reddiyar told the sessions court that the Supreme Court had granted a stay on the proceedings of the case until further orders.

They also pointed out that the matter would come up before the Supreme Court on July 31, when the Tamil Nadu Government would file a counter on the petition, objecting the appearance of their SPP in the Pondicherry case.

Following this, Mr Pandy posted the case for August 24.

UNI PAB MSJ VP1228