Jayalalithaa complains about delay in trial of her case

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Monday told the Supreme Court that the Karnataka government in collusion with her political rivals was dragging the trial for over 18 years in the alleged illegal assets case against her.

The apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice S.A. Bobde was told this as it perused the file relating to the appointment of Bhavani Singh as special public prosecutor (SPP).

Bhavani Singh was withdrawn by the Karnataka government from Jayalalithaa's case Sep 16.

"He is my political opponent - respondent 5 (DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan) ... whole history of this case is Karnataka playing in the hands of respondent 5," said senior counsel Shekhar Naphade appearing for Jayalalithaa.

"The whole purpose is to keep the pot boiling till 2014 Lok Sabha elections," Naphade told the court.

"Karnataka was aiding and abetting private respondent" and the moment he moved the high court seeking the removal of Bhavani Singh, the Karnataka government caved in, he said.

It was on the plea of Anbazhagan that the proceedings were initiated against Jayalalithaa in alleged illegal assets case. The case is on for the last 18 years.

Jayalalithaa said this to the apex court while seeking the restoration of Bhavani Singh as the SPP and giving extension to the special judge hearing the case as he was scheduled to retire Sep 30.

The court was told that the entire case record ran into 34,000 pages and if a new SPP was appointed he would require reasonable time to get acquainted with the details of the proceedings and a new judge too would require time to get familiarised with the case.

The illegal assets case relates to the period when Jayalalithaa was chief minister in 1991-96 involving Rs.66 crore. The trial in the case was shifted outside Chennai by the apex court in 2003 to ensure free and fair trial.

The apex court would next hear the case Tuesday.