Kanchi seer acquitted in auditor assault case

In a major relief for Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, a sessions court on Friday acquitted him of all charges in the 2002 auditor assault case.

Additional Sessions Judge Rajamanickam also acquitted Kanchi Mutt manager N Sundaresa Iyer and junior Acharya Vijayendra Saraswathi’s brother Raghu and six others on the ground that the prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond any reasonable doubt.

The 80-year-old Sankaracharya, who was the prime accused in the case, was present in the court when the judgement was delivered.

Hailing the verdict, the Seer said “it’s a good judgement. I welcome it”.

According to the prosecution case, former auditor of the Kanchi Mutt S Radhakrishnan was assaulted by a gang at his Mandaveli residence here on September 20, 2002.

The gang had attacked Radhakrishnan assuming that he was writing letters in the pseudo name of Somasekhara Ghanapadigal highlighting the alleged irregularities in the Mutt.

The police had registered a case against 12 people, including Jayendra Saraswathi. The chargesheet was filed in 2006 for offences including criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder.

 A total of 55 witnesses were examined by the prosecution. Of the 12 accused, two of them, Appu and Kathiravan, died during the pendency of the case and the lone approver Ravi Subramaniam turned hostile.