On counter investigation we found the case against the Shankaracharya slippery. Now it turns out that the case is not just slippery, but actually groundless from Day One.

Not just that, it involves a bit of fabrication too. Yes, fabrication to fix the Acharya. The police are now running for cover. They may not give up yet, may fabricate more to put the case, which is virtually dead, on life support system.

But the case is irretrievably lost. This dramatic turn came on Wednesday (Nov 24, 2004) in Kancheepuram magistrate's court. The two criminals, on whom the police had exclusively 'relied' to name the Shankaracharya as an accused in the case, have actually turned to accuse the police as fabricators of the case itself!

Spotlight: Kanchi Jayendra's Arrest

On November 24, Kathiravan and Rajni were brought to the Kancheepuram magistrate's court for extending their judicial remand. At that time Kathiravan wished to make a statement. The prosecution protested, 'his confession having been recorded in-camera, he should not be allowed to speak'! The court overruled, asked Kathiravan to write his statement. As his hand had been rendered inoperative by police bashing, the magistrate himself recorded his statement.

In the next few minutes, speaking extempore, Kathiravan demolished the police case against the Acharya, exposed them as fabricators of the case against him.

He told the court that he, along with his friends, were arrested on November 3. Not, as the police lied, on November 9. [His lawyers had recorded this fact on Nov 3 itself]

That between November 4 and November 8, under police torture he said what the police wanted him to say. That he was kept in a Marwari's house in Uthandi, on the outskirts of Chennai for two days and beaten black and blue. That he was shown to different persons as Kathiravan [so that they may say they knew him, even though they did not know him].

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That from Nov 4 to 8, he was kept in 'Paramount Hotel' in Sriperumpudur in Room Nos 108 and 109, and was tortured to confess 'as the police wanted'.

That he was made to sign on blank sheets. That on Nov 9, he was made to stay in the office of the Additional Superintendent of Police, Kancheepuram, and in the night made to say, 'whatever the police wanted him to say' in front of a video-camera and in the presence of the Tehsildar.

That he was remanded the next day, November 10. That between Nov 15 and 17 he was pressurised to make judicial confession under Sec 164 of the Penal Code 'as the police wanted'.

That he was not allowed to meet his relatives, his brother too was arrested. That.... Kathiravan went on.

All this Kathiravan told a stunned court and the public totally spontaneously. He corroborated his statements with events, places, and dates. He demonstrated that the police were fixing the Acharya through him.

He admitted that his confessions to the police and to the Tehsildar, used to arrest the Acharya, were obtained under duress. So the star witness against the Acharya in the court is today the star witness against the police in public!

But the more dangerous is the testimony of Rajni alias Chinna who also said that he was bashed up for days to tell lies against himself and the Acharya. He lost his teeth in police bashing. He exhibited his injuries to the court.

What he said was also identical to what Kathiravan said. Yet both had never met before. He may be the smoking gun against the police who know he is not involved in the crime at all! He is a petty pickpocket, cannot even wield a blade, according to insiders.

Rajni also claimed to have a copy of the telegram he had sent to the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court complaining of the torture! Statements of Kathiravan and Rajni are highly corroborated, also spontaneous. They were all along in police custody. Even their relatives were not allowed to meet them.

Kathiravan and Rajni cases are fit for the National Human Rights Commission to act suo moto. If the NHRC does not, some one will have to move it. That will expose the forces that have fabricated the case and fixed the Acharya.

Now after what Kathiravan and Rajni told the magistrate at Kancheepuram, not the Shankaracharya, but the police stand accused. But still it is Shankaracharya who is in jail and those who are accused of fixing him by fabrication are keeping him in jail.

This bizarre situation is a product of a perverted investigation and an equally perverted decision to arrest the Shankaracharya on the basis of a perverted investigation. Yes the prosecution has all but collapsed.

The only question is who will do the funeral for it and when. It can happen forthwith if the State realises it has been misled by police. Or years later though courts.

Emboldened by the dishonesty of the media the police may still attempt more fabrication to fix the Acharya. But it will get into more trouble and also get the Government into more embarrassment.

But who will admit that the case is dead? Not the media, which virtually turned the prosecutor, not the State whose police is the fixer. Then who, except the court?