Egmore court frames charges against Sasikala in FERA cases

Sasikala was produced in the court through video conferencing from Parapana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru, where she has been lodged following her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.  

ACMM S Malarmathi framed the charges against Sasikala in two cases and adjourned the case to January 9, 2019, for framing charges in two other cases. 

The charges were framed after the Madras High Court had on December 10 quashed the warrant issued by the ACMM EOW Court for production of Sasikala for framing of charges and questioning on December 13. 

Judge N Anand Venkatesh quashed the warrant and said she could be produced through video conferencing from the Parappana Agrahara prison.  The Judge, while directing her nephew V Bhaskaran to appear before the court, also directed the EOW court to complete the case within four months.  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 Tamil satellite channel JJTV.  In pursuit of this, payments were made to firms in United States in Singapore dollars for hiring transponders and uplinking facilities for the JJTV without the permission of the RBI.

Sasikala and 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, which was quashed by the High Court and subsequently produced by video conferencing on Thursday.