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[ Newindpress.com ]
Ravi Subramaniam cross-examined; case set for committal
Monday April 11 2005 17:32 ISTPTI
KANCHEEPURAM: A local court extended the remand of 19 accused in the Sankararaman murder case, in which the Kanchi seers Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi are the main accused, till April 13, after the defence counsel completed cross-examination of Ravi Subramaniam, accused-turned-approver in the case.
The case is expected to be committed to the Sessions court on April 13.Five other accused, including the Kanchi Sankaracharyas, have obtained bail in the case.
Earlier, advocate Chandrasekharan, representing Raghu and Appu, filed a petition stating that some documents were not supplied and he would not be able to cross-examine Ravi Subramaniam. But judicial first class magistrate G Uthamaraja dismissed it, saying that the main chargesheet was adequate.
However, the lawyer did not conduct the cross-examination. Both the acharyas had obtained leave of absence through dispensation petitions citing 'Sriramanavami'.
When the prosecution protested and asked the court to issue summons to fetch them, the magistrate said that they were ordered to be present without fail on the next hearing (April 13).
During the cross-examination, Lakshmana Reddy, counsel for Vijayendra Saraswathi, put a leading question to Ravi Subramaniam, suggesting that he had been under police detention from a date not disclosed, and that he had been taught meticulously by police to give a statement implicating the people they were subsequently arresting.
Reddy further asked about the gaps in the chronology of events between the murder of Sankararaman, and the date of his supposed arrest at Guruvayur. He further asked whether Ravi Subramaniam had any relative, brother and sister, and friends with whom he had contacts.
Ravi Subramaniam replied that he had not spoken to any one, excepting a close friend Ravi, and that the magistrate or CJM who recorded his statement had not asked him for these details, nor took any separate statement about what he knew of the murder and the case.
Varadarajan, lawyer for Sundaresa Iyer, said Ravi Subramaniam had animosity against Sundaresa Iyer. Ravi Subramaniam agreed and said he believed that Sundaresa Iyer was out to finish his career as contractor by denying him many contracts.
While Ravi Subramaniam struck to his statement, the lawyers brought out the points that there were some discrepancies in the dates of payment and amounts, mentioned by Ravi Subramaniam, as "pay offs" after Sankararaman's murder.
Counsel for Jayendra Saraswathi, K S Dinakaran told reporters later that this was not an elaborate exercise, but the cross-examination was only to challenge the approver's statement, and served the limited purpose of exposing that the statement was not wholly true.
The old law permitted all witnesses to be examined by defence, while under the new law only the approver's statement could be challenged, to record a formal denial, he said.
The Kanchi seer was arrested on November 11 last year at Mahbubnagar in Andhra Pradesh in connection with the September 3 murder of the temple official Sankararaman. The Supreme Court granted him bail in the case on January 10.
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