The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking permission to further investigate the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha being tried by a Bangalore court.
A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Dipak Misra did not find any merit in the special leave petition filed by the Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption against the Karnataka High Court’s verdict. The HC on September 16, last year had allowed a petition filed by DMK general secretary K Anbazhagan.
He had challenged the decision of the vigilance department to conduct further investigation on June 15, 2011 in the case within a month of Jayalalitha’s taking over the charge of the state as chief minister.
“In our considered view, no interference is called for. However, before parting with the case, we would like to direct the trial court to conclude the trial of the cases as expeditiously as possible, without being influenced by any observation made by the High Court in the impugned judgments. The special leave petitions are dismissed with the direction,” the apex court said.
Senior counsel T R Andhiyarujina, appearing for Anbazhagan submitted that the direction of further investigation under Section 173(8) of the Criminal Procedure Code was an “abuse of process of law and an attempt to sabotage the trial.”
He claimed the facts of the case, including resiling of 76 witnesses, showed that accused number one (Jayalalitha) made a “systematic attempt” to create a “façade” of further investigation to prolong the trial in which 259 witnesses had already been examined and the matter was at stage of statement of accused.
Senior advocate Ashok Desai, appearing for the TN police claimed it was the right of the probe agency to seek “further investigation.”
