Charges against me a lie: Kanchi Sankaracharya tells court in an assault case against him

Chennai: Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi on Monday told a court in Chennai that the charges made out against him by the prosecution in the auditor Radhakrishnan assault case were a “lie”. Jayendra Saraswathi, the prime accused and eight others, including Kanchi Mutt Manager Sundaresa Iyer and junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswati’s brother Raghu appeared before the First Additional Sessions Judge Pajamanickam on Monday. Answering questions under Section 313 CrPC for nearly an hour, the 80-year old pontiff said the case against him was “a lie, everything is wrong”, which he repeated. To most of the other questions, he said “I do not know,” “I do not know anything” and “No” by waving his hand. In his deposition in the packed court room, he answered 91 questions that ran over sixty pages, based on the witness accounts. [caption id=“attachment_2699974” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Jayendra Saraswati. PTI[/caption] He was asked if he spoke to Radhakrishnan over phone and warned him assuming that he was writing letters in the pseudonym of Somasekara Ganapadigal to which he said ‘No’. He also replied in the negative to questions reflecting other accusations of Radhakrishnan, including with regard to use of gold vis-a-vis the ‘Kanakabishekam’ for Paramacharya Chandrasekara Saraswathi in view of the latter’s centenary in 1993. Sundaresa Iyer and Raghu too said the charges against them were a “lie, and a fabricated case” and that they had no links whatsoever to the case. Also six other accused persons too denied any involvement in the case and said the case against them was false. Approver turned hostile witness Ravi Subramanian too turned up for the hearing. Two of the accused in the case, Appu and Kathiravan are dead. Jayendra Saraswathi arrived barefooted to the courtroom and was allowed by the Judge to answer questions by sitting on a chair. After answering the questions, he affixed his thumb impression in case related documents. According to the prosecution, former auditor of the mutt S Radhakrishnan was allegedly assaulted by a gang in his home here on 20 September, 2002. Criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder were the main charges against the accused. Police had registered a case against 12 persons, including Jayendra Saraswati, and the chargesheet was filed in 2006 for offences including criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder. The gang had attacked Radhakrishnan assuming that he was writing letters in the pseudo name of Somasekhara Ganapadigal highlighting alleged ‘irregularities’ in the mutt. PTI