Author: M.R. Venkatesh
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: December 2, 2004
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041202/asp/nation/story_4075898.asp
After all but implicating a woman
from Srirangam in the Kanchi temple murder, the prosecution today turned
around and said she is innocent.
On Monday, the prosecutors had told
Madras High Court that Jayendra Saraswati had long early morning conversations
with Usha, a "deserted woman in Srirangam", to whom substantial sums of
money had been transferred. The suggestion was that she was involved in
the murder of temple manager Shankar Raman in which the seer is the first
accused.
But after two days of questioning,
police failed to find any evidence of Usha's involvement in the case and
allowed her to go home this evening. Summoned by the special team probing
the murder, she patiently sat through a near five-hour interrogation at
the all- women police station today.
Usha, who had yesterday appeared
before the police to say she was a cancer patient and had only sought solace
from the mutt, submitted copies of all the records asked for - her bank
passbook, medical records of treatment for cancer and her recent passport
application form - to the Kancheepuram district superintendent of police,
K. Prem Kumar.
After the ordeal, a relieved Usha
said: "The police officials, after listening to me and perusing all the
records, told me I had nothing to do with this case, cleared me and let
me go." Her lawyer Sudha Ramalingam, who also met the police superintendent,
said: "The investigating police team has been satisfied intrinsically that
there has been no criminal intention or connection between her and the
pontiff."
As a sick and deserted woman, Usha
had been a beneficiary of the mutt on compassionate grounds and her relationship
with the seer was that of sishya and guru, Ramalingam added.
A top police officer of the investigating
team confirmed that "Usha was not involved in this case and she will be
taken as a witness". She had cooperated well with the team and had records
for cancer treatment since 1979, he added.
Usha's elder brother Ranganathan,
who accompanied her, pointed out that some details had been wrongly reported
yesterday. Usha's husband's name is Narayanan (not Parthasarathy as reported
earlier), it was clarified. She had only completed her schooling and had
been working in a private firm as a clerk contrary to earlier reports that
Usha had done her masters in English and taught in a college.
Jobless for some time now, Usha
applied for a passport to go to Dubai as "someone said that she could get
a job as a babysitter there and earn more money", Ramalingam said.
Too tired to react to her name being
tarnished, Usha merely said the police had treated her well during interrogation.
But her lawyer pointed out that she had gone through very painful moments
over the last two days after her name was "sensationalised".
The police today also questioned
a man called Muralidhar Swami. Three police parties "are on the job" to
nab the kingpin of the killer gang, Appu. Two of the teams have fanned
out in Andhra Pradesh and Bangalore and the third is in Tamil Nadu. The
second accused in this case, Chennai-based builder Ravi Subramaniam, is
believed to be in Delhi. "We hope to nab them soon," a top police officer
said.
In a surprise development, VHP leader
Ashok Singhal, who met the junior Kanchi acharya, Vijayendra Saraswati,
here this evening, softened his stand on chief minister Jayalalithaa. Her
latest remarks in Delhi on the Kanchi seer's arrest were a clear indication
that "greater pressures" were at work behind the arrest, "including the
central leadership of this country and a foreign hand", he said.
