Apex court grants bail to Kanchi seer

Supreme Court finds loopholes in evidence, Shankaracharya restrained from visiting mutt.

After two months of intense court battle, the Kanchi Shankaracharya has been granted bail in the Sankararaman murder case.

The Supreme Court today gave him the reprieve with the judges observing: "We are of the opinion that prima facie, a strong case has been made out for grant of bail."

He shall be released on bail on his furnishing a personal bond and two sureties to the chief judicial magistrate of Chingulpet. During the hearing, the seer had given an undertaken that he would not visit the mutt premises if released on bail.

The pontiff was in the Vellore central jail for more than two months following his arrest for the murder of former mutt employee Sankararaman. The Madras High Court had rejected his bail application twice.

However, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice RC Lahoti analysed the evidence and found several loopholes in it.

One of the main pieces of evidence for the prosecution was the alleged withdrawal of Rs 50 lakh from the ICICI bank, allegedly as payment to the hired killers.

It was the sheet anchor of the arguments against bail, accepted by the high court. However, when the Supreme Court called for the bank document, it was found that there was no such withdrawal.

Moreover, the Tamil Nadu government itself changed its stand. Its new version was that the money came from a land deal and it was kept in the seer's room for several months.

However, F S Nariman, counsel for the pontiff, showed to the court that the advance for the land deal was deposited in the Indian Bank. Thus, the main evidence against the seer turned out to be fragile.

On the legal side, the state government's argument was that a person accused of serious crimes like murder could not be granted bail.

State counsel KTS Tulsi had cited the recent Pappu Yadav case in which the Supreme Court had cancelled his bail in such circumstances. However, the Supreme Court rejected the contention stating that the Pappu Yadav case was distinctly different from that of the seer.

The government had relied upon certain confessions made by a few co-accused. One of them has already withdrawn his confession. The court found substance in Nariman's argument that in view of Section 30 of the Evidence Act, the confession of a co-accused was a very weak type of evidence in court.

More than 12 people, including Shankaracharya Vijayendra Sarasawti's brother Raghu, mutt manager Sundaresha Iiyer, mutt accountant Vishwanathan, and two other prime accused Appu and Contractor Ravi Subramaniam, are also in jail in connection with the case.

It may be recalled that the seer has already got bail from a Tamil Nadu court in a related assault case. However, the government has appealed to the Supreme Court against the grant of bail. This appeal is yet to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief LK Advani today deputed party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha and spokesperson Sushma Swaraj to receive the Kanchi Shankaracharya on his release from the Vellore jail following a Supreme Court order.

Swaraj would flying to Chennai and from there proceed to Vellore, party's media cell convener Siddharth Nath Singh said.