Friday, October 7 2005 16:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kancheepuram: A Magistrate's court here has closed the cases against two women advocates, charged with threatening Ravi Subramanian, accused-turned-approver in the Sankararaman murder case, to withdraw his confessional statement implicating Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi in it.

Accepting a petition filed by the prosecution yesterday (Oct 6, 2005) under Section 321 Cr.PC to withdraw the cases against the lawyers Revathi Vasudevan and Nadira Banu, the magistrate G Uthamaraja later closed the cases.

In June last, the Tamil Nadu government had informed the Madras High Court that it would withdraw the cases against the advocates.

The statement was recorded by Justice P D Dinakaran, while hearing a petition by the lawyers for a direction to the CBI to probe the prosecution allegations that they had threatened Subramanian.

A defence lawyer told reporters that the closure of the cases has been intimated to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a petition from the Sankaracharya, seeking transfer of the case to outside Tamil Nadu.

Besides the Seer, his junior Vijayendra Saraswathi and 22 others, including Vijayendra's younger brother Raghu and Mutt manager Sunderesa Iyer are also accused in the case.