SC rejects Sasikala plea to stay DA case trial

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to pass any order on a plea made by V K Sasikala, a former aide of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, seeking direction to a Bangalore court to prepare records in Tamil in the on-going disproportionate assets case against her and others.

A Bench of Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan declined to stay the trial on the special leave petition challenging the Karnataka High Court order passed on February 3.

In the plea, Sasikala sought setting aside of the High Court order which had rejected her petition on the ground that law did not require simultaneous preparation of the translated version by the interpreter.

She contended that it would be violation of her right to free and fair trial if there was no direction for creating a contemporaneous records by translating and reducing into writings the questions of the trial judge.

“The trial judge did not know Tamil and the petitioner accused did not know English.

In the circumstances, the questions framed under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code would be complex requiring recording of the questions and answers in English and Tamil and translation and interpretation thereof thus creating contemporaneous records,” the petition said.

The apex court, which refused to allow the plea of Sasikala, however, said she could approach it in future if she felt not satisfied with the proceedings in the trial court.

The Bangalore court is likely to take up on February 18 the hearing in the case in which Jayalalitha is also an accused for alleged possession of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 66 crore between 1991 and 1996.