Three more prosecution witnesses examined in murder case

Puducherry, Feb 24 (PTI) An assistant surgeon and twoothers were today cross examined in a court here during thetrial in the ''Sankararaman murder case'' in which KanchiSankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi and his junior Vijendra arethe main accused.

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) N Devadoss examinedG Muralikrishnan, then Assistant Surgeon in the GovernmentGeneral hospital at Kancheepuram, who conducted the postmortem on Sankararaman''s body.

The SPP also examined two scientific officers R Banumathyand V Sivapriya in the Department of Forensic Sciences atChennai during the hearing today when it resumed beforePrincipal District and Sessions Judge T Ramaswamy.

With this, the number of prosecution witnesses examinedhas gone up to 165.

The Judge then adjourned further hearing to tomorrow.

Sankararaman, manager of the Varadarajaperumal temple atKancheepuram, was murdered on September 3, 2004. The two seershave been charged with conspiracy and murder in the case.

Of the 24 accused, only nine were present during thehearing today and the absentees included the two seers.

Of the 165 witnesses examined since the commencement ofthe trial some two years ago, a total of 75 witnesses haveturned hostile.

The trial was shifted to Puducherry from Chengalpattucourt following a Supreme Court order in October 2005 on apetition by Jayendra Saraswathi.