Friday, July 29 2005 15:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: The ongoing trial in the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate asset case today (July 29, 2005) took a new turn with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, the main accused, filing an application before the special court praying for her discharge contending that the prosecution has not secured proper sanction from "competent authorities" to prosecute her.

With Jayalalithaa, assuming office of the Chief Minister in 2001 and in the wake of clubbing of the London Hotel case with the main asset case on June 27, 2005, the prosecution was required to secure sanction from the Tamil Nadu state assembly speaker to prosecute her, N Jyoti, the counsel for the petitioner submitted in the application moved before the Special Court Judge A S Pachhapure,

"There is no proper, valid sanction order and both the sanction orders issued by the Tamil Nadu Governor on June 2, 1997 and March 23, 2001 are incorrect and not in accordance with the verdict of the Supreme Court", the petitioner contended.

The governor is not a competent person under proper statutory provisions, Jayalalithaa submitted and further prayed that there is no proper sanction order in terms of Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1968.

The sanctions obtained by the prosecution under section 197 (1) of the CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) are improper, the petitioner maintained.

Jayalalithaa submitted that the DMK regime has filed the case against her out of sheer political vendetta.

The petitioner further contended that the prosecution has not made any attempt in terms of Section 19 of the PC Act to secure sanction even though it was making attempts to prosecute her under section 13 (1)E of the PC act.

Both the sanction orders obtained under 197 (1) of the CrPC are incorrect and liable to be rejected in the consequential inevitable order of discharging the petitioner, it maintained.

"The special court is yet to control the case by retaining the cognizance of the case", the petitioner stated.

With this, Jayalalithaa became the third accused to move the trial court seeking discharge from the case after Illavarasi (A3) and T T V Dinakaran (A 5).

Dinakaran, accused in the London Hotel case has now been arraigned as Accused No. 5 following the clubbing of the case with the main asset case by the court by its June 27 order. Jyothi would submit his arguments on Jayalalithaa's application tomorrow.