Madras High Court turns down Sasikala's plea in FERA case, directs ED to speed up probe

CHENNAI: Turning down the plea of VK Sasikala, an aide of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, against certain questions posed to her in the economic offences case for purchasing equipment for JJ TV Pvt limited without the consent of Reserve Bank, the Madras High Court directed the accused to co-operate with trial and ordered the investigative agency to speed up the probe.

A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice M Jothiraman directed the trial court to proceed with the hearing in the main case. The bench also directed the parties, including Sasikala, to cooperate with the 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 the first accused 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 grounds to set aside questions is 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.

The case has been 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 interruption. So, the bench directed the trial court to complete the trial and dispose of the case expeditiously. The HC also directed the probe agency and the accused persons not to seek any further adjournment to avoid prolonging the case.

The ED booked Sasikala and V Bhaskaran, her nephew, under FERA, alleging that they entered 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 prosecution alleged that the payments were made to firms stationed in the United States of America and Singapore in dollars for hiring transponders and uplinking facilities for JJ TV without getting permission from the Reserve Bank of India.

The ED arrayed JJ TV as the first accused, Bhasakaran as the second accused, and Sasikala as the third accused on its charge sheet. However, Sasikala was mentioned as the first accused in the cause title of the case pending before the Economic Offences court in Egmore.

Aggrieved by this, Sasikala objected to further proceedings and moved to the HC seeking relief.