Sankararaman murder case hearing to resume after end of stay

Special Public Prosecutor N.Devaodss said the eight  week interim stay granted by Madras High court on a petition by Chennai based advocate P.Sundararajan would end on October 20.

The Madras High court had granted the stay on August 25 on the petition, which alleged that there was an attempt to influence the trial court verdict and that tapes of telephonic conversation that had surfaced recently indicated the alleged attempt to influence the trial court judge.

Sankarararaman, manager in Varadharajaperumal temple in Kancheepuram was allegedly murdered at his office on the temple premises on September 3, 2004. The two seers have been charged under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) in the case.

As per the original schedule, the Principal District and Sessions Judge T Ramasamy had posted commencement of arguments in the case to today. He had earlier completed viewing of video cassettes relating to investigation into the case and also had listened to audio cassette on August 12 and had posted the arguments in the case to commence today.

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

The trial was shifted to Puducherry on a petition Jayendra Saraswathi had filed in the Supreme Court in October 2005.