Jaya told to appear on June 9 in income tax case

A court here today adjourned to June nine the income tax return cases against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her aide Sasikala for their appearance.

When the case came up for hearing to fix the date for their appearance before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R Dakshinamurthy, the prosecution prayed to post the case within a week for questioning the accused and for framing charges.

"The petition filed by the Special Public Prosecutor is allowed in view of the orders passed by Supreme Court. Under the circumstances, this case is posted to June 9 for appearance of the accused for questioning and for framing charges", the Magistrate said.

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 and also as partners of Sasi Enterprises for assessment years 1991-92 and 1992-93.Discharge petitions filed by the accused were 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 trial court had dismissed Jayalalithaa's petition praying for exemption from personal appearance and directed her to be present before it on April 10.

The ACMM on April 10 had directed Jayalalithaa and Sasikala to appear before it on April 28 for framing charges and answering questions.

However, both did not turn up and adjournment petitions were filed citing the Supreme Court order granting three more months for completion of trial. The matter was posted to May 19.

On May 19, it was submitted that due to the death of the mother of the counsel B Kumar on record he would not be in a position to appear before the court till June 1.

The case was then adjourned for today for fixing a date for the appearance of the accused.