Police get custody of key suspect in temple murder

Appu alias Krishnasamy, prime accused in the murder of temple official Sankararaman, was yesterday remanded to police custody for three days.

Appu will be questioned on his alleged role in the September 3 killing at the behest of Kanchi Shankar-acharya Jayendra Saraswati.

The alleged don, Appu, has claimed that both he and the Hindu cleric, Saraswati, were innocent and blamed politicians for the frame-up.

Judicial Magistrate G. Uttamaraja at Kanchipuram, about 70 km from here, allowed the special investigating team to take Appu into its custody till 5pm tomorrow.

Appu, who was brought to the court under tight security, appeared relaxed. He was chatting with the policemen through the 80-minute remand session, when he was charged with murder and criminal conspiracy.

Superintendent of Police K. Premkumar heading the special team had picked him up from his farmhouse near Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday.

Medical check-up

When the magistrate asked him if he had anything to say with regard to the police request for his custody for seven days, Appu readily agreed.

The magistrate asked Appu to nominate a lawyer to meet him every day between 6 and 7pm during the custody period. Appu named Purushottaman, a Chennai-based lawyer.

The magistrate also ordered that since Appu was a 'heart patient', he should be medically examined every day and that he should not be subject to any harassment or torture.

Earlier, Chief Investigation Officer Sakthivelu told the magistrate on oath that Appu was a key accused in the case and that he had conspired with Saraswati to engage mercenaries to kill Sankararaman.

Police theory

The police theory is that since Sankararaman was threatening to expose the misdeeds in the Kanchi Mutt, Saraswati had asked Appu to hire mercenaries to eliminate him.

Saraswati directed another devotee, Ravi Subramaniam, a real estate dealer, to finance the operation.

All the people listed as accused in the case have been arrested, except for Ravi Subramaniam, who remains untraced.

Appu has denied any link with the murder. "True I know Jayendrar Swamingal well and have visited the Mutt many times. But that is not reason enough to accuse the two of us of having killed Sankararaman.

"Neither of us had anything to do with that crime," Appu said.

He said he decided to 'surrender' as he had got information that the police might kill him in a fake encounter.

However Superintendent of Police Premkumar denied Appu had surrendered himself. A special police team stalking the fugitive for several days got him finally at his Chittoor farmhouse. "We had created conditions that he had nowhere to run or hide."

- The Asian Age