Tirupati: Appu, one of the prime accused in the Sankararaman murder case in which Kanchi Shankaracharya has been arrested, is understood to have surrendered today (Dec 19, 2004) to the police in Chittor district of Andhra Pradesh.

Appu alias Krishnawswamy, who police alleged had arranged the killers of Sankararaman, the former official of the Kanchi Mutt and later the Varadarajaperumal temple in Kancheepuram, gave himself up to a team of Tamil Nadu policemen at the house of his brother-in-law in Balakrishnapuram, 50km from Tirupati.

There was, however, no official word from police in either Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh on Appu's surrender.

Appu is believed to have told the police that he was not involved in the crime.

Police have been on the look out for Appu, whose photograph of doing a "pada puja" of Jayendra Saraswati was splashed in the media recently, and a building contractor Ravi Subramaniam ever since the murder.

Subramaniam is yet to be traced.