New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain "at this stage" the plea of Sasikala Natarajan, estranged close aide of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to provide her translated copies in Tamil of the proceedings before the special Bangalore trial court in a disproportionate assets case.
A bench of justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan felt since the trial court had adequate language interpreters there was no need to interfere with the Karnataka High Court's decision to reject her plea.
Sasikala had claimed while she did not know English the trial judge was not conversant with Tamil and hence she faced difficulty in answering the questions put to her by the court and follow the proceedings.
The Karnataka High Court had earlier rejected her plea. Jayalalithaa was earlier directed by the Supreme Court to appear in a Bangalore trial court on Thursday in the disproportionate assets case.
The trial of the disproportionate assets case, allegedly involving accumulation of assets worth over Rs 66 crore between 1991 and 1996 by Jayalalithaa and her aides, was shifted earlier to Bangalore by the apex court on the latter's fears that she might be denied a fair trial in Tamil Nadu due to state's erstwhile DMK government which she had accused of implicating her in false cases.
The apex court had on September 12 dismissed Jayalalithaa's plea for exemption from personal appearance owing to threat perception.
She had further submitted that she was apprehensive of a hostile atmosphere in Bangalore from organisations like the "Al Mun Thameen Force" which had vowed to avenge the killing of its cadre Imam Ali and others in an encounter with the Tamil Nadu police in Bangalore during 2002.
Besides, she said there were a number of other threat perceptions to her.
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