Sankararaman murder: Court to view video

Sankararman was allegedly murdered on the premises of the temple on September 3,2004.

A local court on Friday agreed to view the video cassettes collected during investigation into the Sankararaman murder case,in which Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswati and his junior Vijendra Saraswati are main accused.

Principal District and Sessions Judge T Ramaswamy fixed August 11 and 12 for in camera proceedings wherein the cassettes will be viewed after Special Public Prosecutor N Devadoss filed a petition in this regard after hearing resumed today.

Devadoss said the audio and video cassettes had been marked as ‘vital documents’.

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Arguments in this case would commence after August 12,he said.

Sankararman,the manager in Varadarajaperumal temple in Kancheepuram,was allegedly murdered on the premises of the temple on September 3,2004.

Only eight of the 24 accused were present in the court. The absentees included the two seers.

A total of 189 witnesses were examined and cross examined since the beginning of the trial in April 2009,of whom 81 turned hostile.

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Questioning of all accused including the two seers was also carried out in batches between July 18 and 23. All of them had alleged that a false case had been foisted against them.

The two seers have been charged under IPC sections of 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder).

The trial was shifted to Puducherry court on a directive of the Supreme Court following a writ petition filed before it by Jayendra Saraswathi in October 2005.

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