Slamming Amma govt, SC shifts Kanchi seer case out of the state
‘To get conviction, dissent muzzled...fear psychosis’
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 26: In a stinging indictment of the Jayalalithaa government, the Supreme Court today slammed its conduct in the Sankararaman murder case against the Kanchi Seer and transferred the trial to neighbouring Pondicherry.
The order was given by a bench of Justice R C Lahoti and Justice G P Mathur on a petition filed by the Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati seeking transfer of the case outside the state.
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At the end of a careful scrutiny, the court said, “The state machinery in TN is not only taking an undue interest, but is going to any extent in securing the conviction of the accused by any means and to stifle even publication of any article or expression of any dissent in media or press, interview by journalists or persons who have held high positions in public life and are wholly unconnected with the case.”
Disturbed over the attitude of the state machinery, which had even not spared the lawyers of the accused and launched criminal prosecutions against them hampering their right to be defended by a lawyer of their choice, the court said: ‘‘Even under British rule, when CrPC was enacted in 1898, Section 340(1) gave a similar right to an accused.”
The court said that the government’s orders reflected its intention to ‘‘create a fear psychosis in the minds of the [people.’’
The state government’s direction to banks to freeze the Mutt’s 183 accounts suggested that it was not only interested in securing conviction of the seer “but also to bring to a complete halt, entire religious and other activites of the various trusts and endowments and the performance of pooja and other rituals in the temples and religious places in accordance with the custom and traditions and thereby create a fear psychosis in the minds of the people.”
On the cases against BJP leader M M Joshi, DMK leader K Karunanidhi and journalist S Gurumurthy “merely because they expressed some dissent against the arrest of the petitioner”, it said this “shows the attitude of the state that it cannot tolerate any kind of dissent, which is the most cherished right in a democracy guaranteed by Article 19 of the Constitution”.
The apex court also castigated the role of Kanchipuram SP Prem Kumar, who headed the Special Team that probed the case. It said he had prompted the approver Ravi Subramaniam to make insinuations against a senior counsel for the accused.
The bench observed that the accused did have a “reasonable apprehension” that they would not get justice in the state. Transferring it to Pondicherry, said the court, would also take care of any language problem.
Jayendra Saraswati was arrested from Mehboobnagar in Andhra on November 11 last year in connection with the murder of Sankararaman, a temple manager. The seer was accused of masterminding the murder as the deceased did nto approve his style of functioning.
Later his junior, Vijayendra, was also arraigned as an accused in the case and arrested. The case is currently pending in the Principal Sessions Court, Chengelpet.
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 26: In a stinging indictment of the Jayalalithaa government, the Supreme Court today slammed its conduct in the Sankararaman murder case against the Kanchi Seer and transferred the trial to neighbouring Pondicherry.
The order was given by a bench of Justice R C Lahoti and Justice G P Mathur on a petition filed by the Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati seeking transfer of the case outside the state.
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At the end of a careful scrutiny, the court said, “The state machinery in TN is not only taking an undue interest, but is going to any extent in securing the conviction of the accused by any means and to stifle even publication of any article or expression of any dissent in media or press, interview by journalists or persons who have held high positions in public life and are wholly unconnected with the case.”
Disturbed over the attitude of the state machinery, which had even not spared the lawyers of the accused and launched criminal prosecutions against them hampering their right to be defended by a lawyer of their choice, the court said: ‘‘Even under British rule, when CrPC was enacted in 1898, Section 340(1) gave a similar right to an accused.”
The court said that the government’s orders reflected its intention to ‘‘create a fear psychosis in the minds of the [people.’’
The state government’s direction to banks to freeze the Mutt’s 183 accounts suggested that it was not only interested in securing conviction of the seer “but also to bring to a complete halt, entire religious and other activites of the various trusts and endowments and the performance of pooja and other rituals in the temples and religious places in accordance with the custom and traditions and thereby create a fear psychosis in the minds of the people.”
On the cases against BJP leader M M Joshi, DMK leader K Karunanidhi and journalist S Gurumurthy “merely because they expressed some dissent against the arrest of the petitioner”, it said this “shows the attitude of the state that it cannot tolerate any kind of dissent, which is the most cherished right in a democracy guaranteed by Article 19 of the Constitution”.
The apex court also castigated the role of Kanchipuram SP Prem Kumar, who headed the Special Team that probed the case. It said he had prompted the approver Ravi Subramaniam to make insinuations against a senior counsel for the accused.
The bench observed that the accused did have a “reasonable apprehension” that they would not get justice in the state. Transferring it to Pondicherry, said the court, would also take care of any language problem.
Jayendra Saraswati was arrested from Mehboobnagar in Andhra on November 11 last year in connection with the murder of Sankararaman, a temple manager. The seer was accused of masterminding the murder as the deceased did nto approve his style of functioning.
Later his junior, Vijayendra, was also arraigned as an accused in the case and arrested. The case is currently pending in the Principal Sessions Court, Chengelpet.
Slamming Amma govt, SC shifts Kanchi seer case out of the state
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