Thursday, August 11 2005 22:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: Accused-turned-approver Ravi Subramaniam today (Aug 11, 2005) told a city court, trying the 'Radhakrishnan Assault Case,' that Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi was behind the attack on the former Kanchi mutt associate at his city residence on September 20, 2002.

Narrating his long association with the Seer and the sequence of events for the first time since turning approver to the XXIII Metropolitan Magistrate Uma Maheswari, he alleged that one day he and two other co-accused in the case--Appu and Kathiravan were called to the mutt by the Shankaracharya and told that two persons were blackmailing him.

Appu allegedly told the Seer not to worry about them after which they returned to Chennai.

Subramaniam, a building contractor, claimed that he was again called to the mutt and Mutt Manager Sundaresa Iyer brought out a photo album and extracted two photographs—one of Radhakrishnan and the other of temple official Sankararaman, who was found murdered about two years later on September 3, 2004 from it.

Another accused in the case Raghu, the younger brother of Junior Seer Vijayendra Saraswathi, wrote down the addresses of the persons behind the photographs and gave it to him in an envelope, he said and added that after that he returned to the city and gave the photographs to his assistant Santhanam.

The photographs were handed over to Kathiravan at a city hotel where he was staying, he said.

Subramaniam said on September 21, the day after the assault he had met the Shankaracharya who allegedly gave him Rs one lakh in 1000 rupee note denomination. He said on his return to Chennai he handed over the money, as payment for the assault, to Kathiravan.

Defence counsel K S Dinakaran objected to several allegations made by Subramaniam on the ground that they were either irrelevant to the case or amounted to character assassination of the Shankaracharya.

'You are using this witness (Subramaniam) only to character assassinate,' Dinakaran told the prosecution.

The public prosecutor, however, requested the Judge to record all the submissions.

Objecting to Subramaniam's references to the September last 'Sankararaman Murder Case', in which the Seer and his junior are the prime accused, Dinakaran said if the cases were interconnected as claimed by the prosecution then they should be tried together.

The Judge recorded the submissions and noted the defence objections and posted the case for hearing on August 22 for cross-examination of Subramaniam by the defence.

The case relates to the assault of Radhakrishnan, his wife and attendant at their city residence by two persons in September 2002.

Earlier, the Judge dismissed a petition filed by an accused in the assault case who sought translated copies of certain documents in the case, holding that it was essential to prepare his defence as he was not familiar with the English language.