Additional Superintendent of Police S. Selvaraj, who is currently posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police in Salem, appeared before the Principal District and Sessions Court here on Thursday as one of the witnesses in the temple pujari suicide case.
Principal District and Sessions Judge R. Poornima immediately withdrew the warrant issued against him and allowed the prosecution and the defence counsel to start examination. The court had issued the warrant against Mr. Selvaraj on Wednesday as he did not appear before the court for trial.
Mr. Selvaraj said that he found after investigation that pujari S. Nagamuthu gave a false complaint in order to get compensation from the government under the PCR Act. He came in an auto and caused inconvenience to the public at that time, he said.
Defence counsel M. Kannappan appealed to treat the complaint copy of the deceased as a document.
Mr. Selvaraj was examined as the 21{+s}{+t}witness by both the Special Public Prosecutor and the defence counsel. But he had been made the 59{+t}{+h}witness in the charge sheet.
When Special Public Prosecutor B. Mohan sought a week’s time to examine police officers, the judge turned down his request, and said that the trail would continue on a daily basis.
Later, she adjourned the trial till Friday for examination of other police officers.
All the six accused in the case, including O. Raja, brother of Finance Minister O. Paneerselvam, were present in the court in the morning.
Similarly, the serving and retired police officers, including ADSP (retd) Uma and Inspectors Ilangovan and Chellapandian, were also present. Deputy Superintendent of Police P. Sethu did not appear.
S. Nagamuthu (22) of T. Kallupatti village, a Dalit, who worked as pujari in Sri Kailasanathar Hill Temple in Periyakulam, committed suicide by hanging on December 8, 2012, after he was allegedly subjected to harassment.
