Jayalalitha grilled by special court

She came, she saw and she answered 379 questions.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha made her much-awaited appearance at a Bangalore trial court on Thursday, to face queries in a case of acq­uisition of disportionate assets pending against her since 1996.

The chief minister flew in to Bangalore by a special flight, landed at the HAL airport and drove to the court hall constructed in the premises of the Parappana Agrahara in a convoy of 20 vehicles, with two carloads of NSG commandos providing proximity protection. Barring the accused and lawyers, the court was out of bounds for all, sanitised by a 400-metre no-go radius.

The chief minister answered most of 379 questions posed to her by Judge Mallikarjunaiah, regarding her acquisition of property worth Rs 66 crore during 1991-96 when she was chief minister of Tamil nadu. Beginning at 11 am, the court proceedings concluded at 5:15 pm, with the judge directing her to be present for a similar drill the following day at 11 am.