The Hindu : Front Page : I was forced to give confessional statement: accused

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

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I was forced to give confessional statement: accused

By V. Venkatasubramanian

KANCHEEPURAM, NOV. 24. Kathiravan, an accused in the Sankararaman murder case involving the Kanchi Sankaracharya, today made a submission before the Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate-I, G. Uthamaraj, that he was forced to give a confessional statement by police.

The accused, who was arrested on November 9 and remanded to judicial custody the next day according to police records, told the Magistrate that he wanted to make a statement when he was produced before the court for extension of remand today.

After getting the Magistrate's consent, he said he was picked up by a group of policemen in plainclothes from near a hotel at Kodambakkam in Chennai on November 3 and was brought to the Koyambedu police station. He alleged that he was beaten up at the police station and taken to a bungalow at Uthandi, near Chennai, where police "brought" some persons before him. On the night of November 4, around 10 p.m. he was moved to a hotel near Sriperumpudur, where he was kept in a room till November 8, he said.

He alleged that during that period police beat him up and "obtained" his signature on four blank papers. Later, on November 9 he was brought to the Office of the Additional Superintendent of Police at Kancheepuram, where the investigating team "forced him" to read out a statement as dictated by them. This was recorded on a video camera in the presence of a Tahsildar, he alleged.

"After remanding me on November 10, police took me into their custody for five days and asked me to make a statement under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C. before a Magistrate on November 16 as dictated by them. Prior to making the confessional statement, I was lodged in the Kancheepuram sub-jail, where the policemen continued to insist that I should make a submission as directed by them," he added.

Earlier, the Additional Public Prosecutor, Vijayarangan, objected to the recording of the statement given by the accused, saying that he had already made a confessional statement under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C. before the Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate-II, V. Damodaran, on November 19. But the Magistrate turned down his objection saying that the accused was allowed to make a statement during the time of remand extension.

When the investigation officer, S.P. Sakthivelu, pointed to the presence of the media and claimed that allowing the accused to make a statement in open court would hamper the investigation, the Magistrate said that since the accused wanted to do so in open court he could not do anything.

As the prosecution wanted to make the recording of the statement "in camera," the Magistrate directed the accused to give his statement in writing. But Kathiravan expressed his inability to do so stating that his hand was injured. After Kathiravan made his submission, another accused, Rajini, pleaded that his statement should also be recorded by the court and alleged that his teeth were broken during the interrogation.

After recording their statements, the Magistrate extended their judicial custody till December 8.

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