Glitches, drama mark journey of assets case against Jaya

The special court in Bengaluru trying the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has begun recording her statements.

The marathon proceeding which commenced at 11 am will go on till 5 pm on Thursday.

Jayalalithaa arrived in Bengaluru on Thursday morning amidst tight security and currently there are nearly 1,500 police personnel guarding her. Security is at an unprecedented high and no one barring her lawyers have been permitted to enter into the court.

The case against Jayalalithaa has not been short of drama. The case dates back to 1996 and has had a long history of delays, adjournments and several appeals.

In all there have been 150 adjournments in this case. In fact even before she appeared before the court in person on Thursday, she had moved the Supreme Court complaining about the security arrangements, but the apex court had rejected that claim on the assurance that the Karnataka government had made adequate arrangements.

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Jayalalithaa is the prime accused in this case. In 1996, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government had filed a suo motu case against her based on the complaints filed by party leader K Anbazhagan.

It was alleged that she had amassed wealth worth Rs 66.6 crore which was disproportionate to her known source of income. In this case the other accused persons are her close aides, Sasikala, V Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi.

The case against her commenced in Chennai but then once she became the chief minister in 2001, the DMK moved the Supreme Court stating that the case be shifted out of the state since she may try and tamper with the evidence.

The Supreme Court took cognizance of this petition and ordered the transfer of the case to Bengaluru, where a special court was set up.

Once the case was transferred to Bengaluru, the proceedings started off on a positive note, but then it was dogged by delays due to various reasons.

One of the main reasons was that the documents which were all in Tamil had to be translated and the Karnataka government was not finding the right persons to do the same.

These documents involved the deposition of at least 250 witnesses.

In the midst of this there was also an application moved before the Supreme Court seeking certain explanations on points of law relating to this case. The case was then stayed for nearly a year before the stay was vacated and the proceedings could commence.

After this the special judge who was hearing the case was elevated as judge of the high court and it took a while before a new judge could be appointed.

Two months back Jayalalithaa had moved an application before the same court seeking an exemption from personal appearance. She said she would give a written explanation and would also face the trial through video conferencing.

However, the same was rejected and her personal appearance was sought.

The matter then went up before the Supreme Court and the court was of the view that she appear in person and no such exemption could be granted to her. Just two days before she could appear before the court, she once again moved the Supreme Court stating that not enough security arrangements were made for her and hence she could not appear before the court.

The Supreme Court, however, on Wednesday rejected her application and asked her to appear before the special court in Bengaluru on Thursday.