Pondy: Hearing of Sankararaman case on Apr 16

Puducherry, Mar 20: Puducherry Principal District and Sessions Judge M Chinna Pandi hearing the Sankararaman murder case, in which the Kanchi Acharyas, Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi are the prime accused, today posted the case for April 16.

Out of the 24 accused, 12, including the prime accused Jayendar and Vijayendar failed to appear before the court and seperate petitions citing the reasons for their absence was filed by their Counsels.

Two accused - Ambikapathy and Mattu Bhaskar- had moved bail petitions and the judge citing the Supreme Court stay on the conduct of the proceedings, did not entertain it. Their Counsels, however, argued that the stay was only for conducting the trial and not for any other business matters and the judge could admit and dispose it for the same reasons. No decision was taken on the bail petitions.

It may be noted that the proceedings in the case could not be conducted here as the Supreme Court had stayed it on a Special Leave Petition(SLP) filed by the defence objecting the continued appearance of the Tamil Nadu Special Public Prosecutor in the case and the matter is pending before the apex court.

UNI