Pronouncing the judgment, principal district and sessions judge C S Murugan said the prosecution failed to prove the motive for the commission of murder since Sankararaman's wife Padma (prosecution witness 1) and Anand Sharma (prosecution witness 3), son of deceased Sankararaman, failed to support the prosecution case.
The court said the murder of Sankararaman is not proved since more than 20 prosecution witnesses examined to prove the commission of murder by accused persons, starting from accused 7 to accused 12, turned hostile.
Moreover, Padma and her daughter Uma Maitreyi (prosecution witness 2), who identified the accused during identification parade, failed to support the prosecution case. Similarly, the de-facto complainant Ganesh (prosecution witness 4), who worked along with the deceased Sankararaman and said to have witnessed the murder, failed to support the prosecution case, he observed.
Ocular witnesses and witnesses Ganesh (prosecution witness 4), Durai Kannu (prosecution witness 5) and Kuppusamy (prosecution witness 6), who worked with Sankararaman at the time of occurrence, didn't support the case of the prosecution and turned hostile.
The witnesses examined to prove the presence and identity of accused persons - accused 7 to accused 12 -- soon before and after the occurrence failed to support the prosecution case and turned hostile. The witnesses who identified the accused in the identification parade failed to identify the accused before the court during trail and turned hostile, the court observed.
Further, the chief investigating officer admittedly failed to carry out an investigation with respect to the final letter dated August 30, 2004 (letter of motive) alleged to have been sent by the deceased Sankararaman. The act of conspiracy is not proved since accused 5 and accused 6 were elsewhere at the time of conspiracy.
The judgment came more than nine years after A Sankararaman, manager of Sri Varadharajaswamy temple in Kancheepuram, who had levelled charges of financial mismanagement against the Kanchi seers, was found murdered on September 3, 2004.
The Kanchi seers were charged with criminal conspiracy, misleading the court by giving false information, criminal trespass and supply of funds to carry out the criminal activity.
The Tamil Nadu police arrested the senior seer on Deepaval Day, November 11, 2004, from Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh. The junior seer was arrested on January 10, 2005. The arrests evoked widespread uproar from pro-Hindu parties and outfits. The murder and arrests happened during the previous tenure of J Jayalalithaa's AIADMK.
Police arrested 22 others, including junior seer's brother and the mutt manager. However, the senior seer was granted bail on January 10, 2005. The junior seer got bail on February 10 the same year. One of the accused, M Kathiravan, was murdered in March this year.
The Supreme Court in October, 2005, transferred the case from a Chengalpet court to the Puducherry court following a special leave petition, which claimed that the atmosphere in the state was not conducive for a fair and free trial. The apex court also ordered appointment of a special prosecutor from Puducherry to conduct the trial to replace prosecutors from Tamil Nadu.
The Puducherry principal district and sessions court began the trail in November, 2005. The murder case that attained nationwide attention took several twists and turns, including prosecution witnesses turning hostile during the course of examination and reexamination.
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