Public money squandered: Swamy

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI, JAN. 22. The Tamil Nadu Government is squandering public money by pursuing a ``false case'' against the Sankaracharyas of the Kanchi Mutt, the Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, alleged here today.

Referring to the ``special prayers'' offered at the Varadharajaperumal temple by the investigating officers of the Sankararaman murder case before filing the chargesheet on Friday, Dr. Swamy wondered whether it was not a violation of the secular ethos that the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, said she was upholding.

He said that absolving the building contractor, Ravi Subramaniam, of all charges as he had turned approver was an ``unprecedented act in the legal history.''

Dr. Swamy said that public officials who made arrests in false cases could be prosecuted under the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.

On the Justice U.C. Banerjee Committee report on the Godhra carnage, Dr. Swamy said the report had come as a ``contempt of the judicial process'' instead of healing wounds. It was incorrect to say that the cause of the fire was within, as the bogeys were supposed to be fire-resistant. He alleged that inflammable fluids had been used to set the bogey on fire.