Karnataka Court adjourns Jayalalithaa's wealth case for Six Weeks

The Special Court in Karnataka, which hearing the disproportionate wealth case against former Tamil Nadu Chief-Minister Ms J Jayalalithaa has adjourned the trial for six weeks.

When the case came up for hearing on Monday before Judge Mallikarjunaiah, Jayalalithaa's counsel sought an adjournment for which enable him to go through the order of the Supreme Court rejected the plea of her to discharge her from the case.

Even though the Special Public Prosecutor objected this plea,the judge adjourned the trial till May 3.

The Judge Mallikarjunaiah said the adjournment was in light of the Supreme Court's direction on March 19 to fix the schedule for further trial by giving reasonable opportunity to the parties.

On May 3 the court will not only fix the schedule but also look whether the material with the court is sufficient to commence trial. It will also pass orders on the appointment of a translator for recording the evidence of witnesses in English, the Judge said.

This case has been booked by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption, Chennai against Ms. Jayalalithaa, Sasikala Natarajan, V. Sudhagaran and Illavarasi.

The Special Court was hearing the case after it was transferred from Chennai Court on the direction of apex court in 2002. But at the same time,the trial was stayed by the Supreme Court in 2005 on a petition filed by Jayalalithaa.

On Monday the Special Court was to commence the examination of 42 witnesses as sought by the Special Public Prosecutor B.V. Acharya. These 42 were among the 76 witnesses who had turned hostile during the trial held in Chennai. As many as 259 witnesses had been examined by the Chennai Court.

Five witnesses – Assistant Executive Engineer Thiruthuvaraj, Additional Superintendent of Police Kadiresan, S.S.Jawahar, former deputy secretary to Jayalalithaa , M Amanullah and Delhi Rajan – were called on Monday. Only Mr. Rajan and Mr. Amanullah appeared before the court.

As the trial commenced Yesterday, Counsel for Ms. Jayalalithaa A. Navaneethakrishnan filed an application to reschedule the trial as directed by the Supreme Court. Mr. Navaneethakrishnan said a reasonable time of eight weeks was needed to go through the material related to case as the trial was starting after a long gap. Mr. Sudhagaran’s advocate G. Saravan Kumar said the Court should get material related to the case from the Chennai court.

Agreeing for reasonable time, Special Public Prosecutor Mr. Acharya said no new evidence was being adduced or documents being marked during the trial. “Since 76 witnesses have given evidence to the contrary in their statements (before the police), the Supreme Court has given an opportunity for the prosecution to cross examine these witnesses,” he said. Stating that the time of three weeks as reasonable, Mr. Acharya said “We need to go on with the case as enough time has elapsed.”

- Asian Tribune -