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Charges to be framed against Jaya on May 10

The Madras high court today directed Special Judge (III) P Anbazhagan to frame charges against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary J Jayalalitha, her close aide Sasikala Natarajan and four others in the Tansi land deal case on May 10.

Justice P Shanmugam gave the direction, while dismissing a petition filed by former AIADMK minister Mohammad Asif, a co-accused in the case. Asif was seeking the transfer of the cases, pending before the special judge, to any other special court of competent jurisdiction.

The petitioner alleged that on February 19 last, the case was called to furnish copies of the case documents in Tamil to the accused. After the counsel had received the copies, the matter was adjourned to February 25 for further proceedings.

However, it had been decided to frame charges against the accused on that day at the instance of the public prosecutor. Hence, the petitioner had lost confidence in the special judge and felt that he would not get justice from him.

The judge said that neither the rejection of the petition for adjournment, nor the posting of the case for further proceedings or framing of charges was sufficient ground for the transfer of cases.

The case related to the purchase of the government-owned Tansi land by Jaya Publications and Sasi Enterprises, in which Jayalalitha and Sasikala were partners, at a 'lower rate than the market value' during the AIADMK chief's tenure as Tamil Nadu chief minister.

UNI

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