Thursday, January 13 2005 20:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kancheepuram: With the special team probing the Sankararaman murder case having almost completed its investigation work now, the chargesheet will be filed by this month end, according to official sources.

The Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi has been cited as the main accused in the case.

All the 22 accused in the case including Ravi Subramaniam (2nd accused) and Appu (accused no 3), had already been arrested.

Besides, the junior Seer, Vijayendra Saraswathi, his brother Raghu and the Mutt Manager, Sundaresa Iyer, had also been arrested in connection with the case recently.

The 26th person to be arrested was Viswanatha Iyer, the Mutt's accountant, who is the only one to be charged under a different section and in a different case (charge of tampering with the mutt accounts).

Nearly 130 people had been interrogated. A Rajini, a relative of Chinna, one of the accused in the case, was interrogated today, police said.

At least ten persons had given statements under section 164 CRPC at the Uthiramerur Munsif court or Kanchi Judicial magistrate-II court and one of them had retracted. Section 164 pertains to a statement recorded by a witness before a magistrate.

With the investigations having almost been completed now, the filing of chargesheet would take place before this month end, the sources said.