Court to fix date of appearance for Jaya on May 19

A local court here today adjourned to May 19 for fixing date for appearance of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her associate Sasikala in the income tax cases registered against them after their pleas that cited grant of more time by the Supreme Court for completion of trial in the case.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court on April 10 had directed Jayalalithaa and Sasikala to appear before it today for framing charges and answering questions.
However, both did not turn up and adjournment petitions were filed which was objected by the prosecution.
The Supreme Court had given three more months for completion of trial, it was submitted by the defence.

The Magistrate R Dakshinamurthy, adjourning the matter to May 19, said the court would fix date of appearance of the accused on that day.
The income tax department had launched criminal proceedings against Jayalalithaa and Sasikala for allegedly not filing returns in their individual capacity for the assessment year 1993-94.

Complaints were also filed by the IT department for allegedly failing to file returns for the assessment years 1991-92 and 1992-93 by Sasi Enterprises and its partners, Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.
Discharge petitions filed by the accused were later dismissed by the Madras High Court. Jayalalithaa and Sasikala preferred appeals before the Supreme Court. Dismissing their appeals on January 30, the apex Court had directed the lower court to complete the trial in four months.

When the case came up for hearing on April 3, the court had dismissed Jayalalithaa's petition praying for exemption from personal appearance and directed her to be present before it on April 10.