Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court today asked investigating officer N Nallamma Naidu to appear before it to present statements of the witnesses recorded in the charge sheet in Jayalalithaa’s disproportionate assets case.
Justice C R Kumaraswamy, who is hearing Jayalalithaa’s appeals challenging her conviction before the special bench formed as per the Supreme Court order, orally directed Naidu to appear before him to present statements of the witnesses recorded in the charge sheet.
The Special Bench has been set up after the Supreme Court had on December 18 last directed the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court to constitute it to decide Jayalalithaa’s plea within three months.
As soon as the bench assembled for hearing, R Basant, counsel for Sasikala Natarajan, a close aide of Jayalalithaa, submitted that the former Tamil Nadu Chief Miniser is no way connected to the assets owned by his client.
Challenging Basant’s submission, DMK counsel Saravanan Annadurai said there is a connection between Jayalalithaa and three other convicts in the crime as she was the conduit for transferring the money from Jaya Publications into the bank accounts of other convicts.
An apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu had ordered that the hearing in the High Court on the appeal, filed by Jayalalithaa challenging her conviction and sentence in the case, be conducted on a day-to-day basis.
On October 17 last year, the apex court had granted conditional bail to Jayalalithaa, who was sent to jail by a trial court on September 27, saying that hearing on her appeal against conviction in the High Court should be completed in three months from December 18.
The special court had held Jayalalithaa and three others guilty of corruption. The court had awarded four years jail term and also slapped a fine of Rs 100 crore on the AIADMK chief. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10 crore each on the three others.
