Jaya assets case adjourned to Dec 21

Bangalore: A special court, trying the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, today 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.