Puducherry:
A local court has adjourned proceedings in the Sankararaman murder case to April 27. The Kanchi seers Jayendra Saraswathi and his junior Vijayendra Saraswathi are the prime accused in the case.
Principal District and Sessions Judge CS Murugan adjourned the proceedings as the petition filed by Sankararaman widow Padma, in the Madras High Court seeking directions to the court to consider her plea for police protection to her family. She, along with her son and daughter wants to re-testify in the case.
She said that she felt re-testifying in the case was necessary, as she and her family members had been "threatened" in the court premises on August 6, 2009, by some people while she was being taken to depose as a witness and told to give false evidence.
Her son Anand Kumar Sharma and daughter Uma Maitreyi had also deposed in the court as witnesses then. Sankarararman, Manager of Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram, was allegedly murdered in the premises of the temple on September 3, 2004.
Jayendra and Vijayendra have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder).
The trial was shifted to Puducherry from Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu by an October 2005 Supreme Court order on a petition filed by Jayendra.
The two seers were exempted from personal appearance in the case.