Monday, April 18 2005 16:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Kanchi Sankaracharya, an accused in the Sankararaman murder case and seeking transfer of the trial outside Tamil Nadu, today (Apr 18, 2005) alleged before the Supreme Court that Investigating Officer (IO) Prem Kumar was making it difficult even for advocates to appear in his defence.

Counsel for Sankaracharya, senior advocate Fali S Nariman submitted before a Bench comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti and Justice G P Mathur that Kumar prompts the witnesses during examination to level charges against Seer's advocates making it difficult to engage lawyers in his defence.

The Bench asked Nariman to file this information in the form of an affidavit and posted for May 6 hearing on the application filed by Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati seeking transfer of the trial outside the State.

Alleging that "a fair and impartial trial cannot take place in the State of Tamil Nadu", the Seer narrated a series of events, including the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and the hospital project, that led to souring of relations between him and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who is also holding the portfolio of the Home Ministry.

Seer, who was arrested on November 11 last year (2004) and granted bail by the Supreme Court on January 10, said harassement were meted out to journalists like S Gurumurthy and Cho Ramaswamy for criticising the manner of investigation carried out by police.

Expressing apprehension that the trial, if continued in the State, would be "stage managed", the Kanchi seer alleged that even the approver Ravi Subramaniam was always kept under the influence of the Special Investigation team.