Important Point
The Sessions case pending in Tamil Nadu Court against Shankaracharya is transferred to the Court of Pondicherry, who may either try the case himself or assign it to any other Sessions Judge competent to try the same.

JUDGMENT

G.P. Mathur, J.—This petition has been filed by Jayendra Saraswathy Swamigal, Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam under Section 406 Cr.P.C. seeking transfer of Sessions Case No. 197 of 2005 pending before the Principal Sessions Court, Chenglepet, to any other State, out side the State of Tamil Nadu. The respondents arrayed in the Transfer Petition are (1) State of Tamil Nadu, (2) Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu, (3) Shri Prem Kumar, Superintendent of Police, Head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), (4) Shri S.P. Sakthivel, Chief Investigating Officer, SIT, besides respondent Nos. 5 to 28, who are co-accused in the case. Except for respondent No. 5, P. Subramaniam @ Ravi Subramaniam, who has been granted pardon and has turned approver, the remaining co-accused, namely, respondent Nos. 6 to 28 are supporting the prayer for transfer of the case and some of them have filed affidavits in that regard.

2. An FIR was lodged at 7.00 p.m. on 3.9.2004 at Police Station B-2, Vishnu Kanchi by Shri N.S. Ganesan. It was stated therein that at about 5.45 p.m. on 3.9.2004 while he was in the office of Devarajaswamy Devasthanam, two persons armed with aruval came there and caused multiple injuries to Sankaraman, In-charge Administrative Manager, who was sitting on a chair. Four persons were waiting outside and the assailants escaped on their motorcycles. After the case was registered, necessary investigation followed and several persons were arrested.

3. According to the case of the prosecution, the petitioner had entered into a conspiracy with some other co-accused for getting Sankararaman murdered. The motive for the commission of the crime is said to be various complaints alleged to have been made by the deceased levelling serious allegations, both against the personal character of the petitioner and also his style of functioning as Shankaracharya of the Mutt. The petitioner was arrested on 11.11.2004 from Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh. He filed a bail petition before the High Court of Madras, which was rejected on 20.11.2004 and the second petition was rejected on 8.12.2004. Thereafter, the petitioner filed Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 6192 of 2004, which was allowed by this Court on 10.1.2005 and he was granted bail. The very next day, i.e., on 11.1.2005 Vijayendra Saraswati Swamigal (respondent No. 6), who is the junior Sankaracharya, was arrested. According to the custom and tradition of the Mutt, he would succeed the petitioner.

4. After completion of investigation the police submitted a charge-sheet against all the 24 accused in the Court of Judicial Magistrate, Kanchipuram on 21.1.2005, which was registered as Preliminary Registered Case (PRC) No. 2 of 2005 and committal proceedings took place and finally the case was committed to the Court of Sessions where it has been registered as S.C. No. 197 of 2005.

5. The transfer of the case has been sought on several grounds and basically speaking they are as under:-

(i) The State machinery in Tamil Nadu and specially the Special Investigation Team headed by Shri Prem Kumar, Superintendent of Police, has shown great zeal and has made extraordinary efforts, much beyond what is required under the law to anyhow secure the conviction of the accused and to achieve that object has procured and fabricated false evidence.

(ii) The Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu, who is also holding the Home portfolio, has made statements on the floor of the House that the petitioner and the other co-accused are actually involved in the murder of Sankararaman and has also given some press statements and has thereby pre-empted a fair decision in the criminal trial, as statements of persons holding such high offices and specially those made on the floor of the House, are generally believed to be correct and thus the accused stand condemned even before the commencement of the trial.

(iii) A solatium of Rs. 5.00 lakhs was paid by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to Padma Sankararaman (wid