Madras HC refuses to entertain Sasikala's plea in ED case; directs to co-operate with trial

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court refused to set aside the questions given to VK Sasikala, the close aide of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, in the pending trial before economic offences court Egmore connected to alleged purchase of equipments for JJ TV pvt limited without the consent of Reserve Bank. The court also directed the accused to co-operate with trial. 

A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman directed the trial court to proceed with the hearing in the main case and dispose of the matter expeditiously.

The bench also directed the parties including Sasikala to co operate with trial by not filing petitions seeking unnecessary adjournment.

The petition was moved by Sasikala seeking to set aside the questions posed to her in the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act(FERA)1973 case as an error was made in the cause title by mentioning her as  first accused in contrary to the charge sheet.

The special public prosecutor (SPP) Rajnish Pathiyal for the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) submitted that according to section 68 of FERA the error in the cause title will not cause any infirmity on the petitioner in the trial and sought to dismiss the plea.

After the submission the bench held that the error mentioned by the petitioner as ground to set aside questions are not acceptable as the error is curable by the trial court.

Senior counsel B Kumar sought the court to change the cause title in the FERA case pending before the trial court.

However the bench refused to grant any relief in this regard.

As the case is pending for several years since 1997, the bench held that according to section 346 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), once the trial commenced it should go on without any interruption. Hence, the bench directed the trial court to complete the trial and dispose of the case expeditiously and also directed the enforcement agency and the accused persons not to seek any further adjournment to avoid prolonging and protracting the case.

The ED booked Sasikala and V Bhaskaran, her nephew under FERA alleging that they enter into a contract with foreign suppliers of a transponder facility for the launch of a Tamil satellite television channel, as the chairman and managing director of JJ TV pvt limited.

The payments were made to firms in stationed at United States of America and Singapore in dollars for hiring transponders and uplinking facilities for JJ TV without getting the permission from the Reserve Bank of India, alleged the prosecution.

The ED had cited JJ TV as first accused, Bhasakaran as second accused and Sasikala as third accused in it's charge sheet. However, in cause title of the case pending before the economic offences court, Egmore, Sasikala was mentioned as first accused. 

Aggrieved by this Sasikala raised objection for the further proceedings and moved to the high court seeking relief.