Bangalore: A special court, trying the
disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa on Wednesday rejected an application filed by her close
aide and co-accused Sasikala Natarajan, raising questions
concerning the translation process.
Counsel for Sasikala, Santhana Gopalan, had filed the
interlocutory application on December 8 seeking court`s
direction to the interpreter to keep the translated version of
the questions framed by the court ready in Tamil and then
record the answers in Tamil which could then be translated
into English.
Special court judge B M Mallikarjunaiah, however, granted
one week time to the counsel to move the High Court on the
translation matter as against three weeks sought by him and
adjourned recording Sasikala`s statement under section 313 of
CrPC (power to examine the accused) to December 21.
When the court sought to know from the special public
prosecutor B V Acharya whether he had any objection to Gopalan
seeking time to move the High Court, he said, "I have no
objection. They are doing all this only to protract the
proceedings, nothing else."
The case relates to alleged accumulation of wealth
disproportionate to known sources of income by Jayalalithaa
when she was chief minister in 1991-96.
The court had earlier adjourned the case to December 8
for questioning Sasikala, second accused, after the four-day
deposition of Jayalalithaa last month during which she
answered 1,339 questions framed by the judge.
PTI
