Madras HC quashes warrant to produce Sasikala in FERA case

On a petition filed by Sasikala’s counsel Ashokan against the ACMM-EOW warrant for her personal appearance on December 13, Judge N Anand Venkatesh quashed the same and said she could be produced through video conferencing from the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru, where she has been lodged following her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.

The Judge, while directing her nephew V Bhaskaran to appear before the court on December 13, also directed the EOW court to complete the case within four months. 

During the tenure of previous ACMM A Zakir Hussain, the charges were framed against Sasikala and other accused video-conferencing.

The ED had alleged that as chairperson-cum-director of JJTV Private Limited between 1991 and 1996, Sasikala authorised the company’s Managing Director Bhaskaran to negotiate and enter into a contract with any foreign supplier of a transponder facility for launching JJ TV, a Tamil satellite TV channel. 

In pursuit of this, payments were made to firms in United States and Singapore dollars for hiring transponders and uplinking facilities for the JJ TV without the permission of the RBI.

Ms Sasikala and Mr Bhaskaran were cited as accused in these cases. On November 30, ACMM-II S Malarmathi, who is also in charge of ACMM court, found that the accused had not signed the papers relating to framing of charges.

She also pointed out that Sasikala did not appear before the court as directed earlier citing health reasons,following which the warrant was issued for her production before the court onDecember 13.