TN invokes Goonda Act against junior seer's brother, mutt manager

TN invokes Goonda Act against junior seer's brother, mutt manager

Press Trust Of India
Posted online: Saturday, January 22, 2005 at 1239 hours IST

Kancheepuram, January 22: The Special Investigating Team probing the Sankararaman murder case on Saturday detained jailed junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi's brother R Raghu and Kanchi mutt manager Sundaresa Iyer under the Goonda Act, a day after chargesheet was filed against the two Kanchi Shankaracharyas in the case.

Already the SIT had detained eight others Kathiravan, Chinna, Ambikapathy, Mattu Basker, Meenakshi Sundaram, Anand Kumar, Anil Kumar and K S Kumar under the Act, taking the total number of detainees to 10, police said.

A total of 24 persons, including Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi have been arrested in connection with the Sankararaman murder case. Jayendra was enlarged on bail on January 10 last.

Initially there were 25 accused, but after one of the accused Ravi Subramaniam desired to become an approver, he has become a prosecution witness.

The provisions of the Goonda Act are invoked on those, who have a series of cases against them. In police parlance only "habitual offenders" are detained under the Act.

Those detained under the Act cannot seek bail but could approach a review committee for relief after three months of their detention. The detenues could then approach the committee through his advocate to challenge his detention.

The investigating officer has to produce before the committee all the relevant documents.

If the committee felt that the detention was not legal, they could order the release of the detenues.