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Jaya to stand trial in coal case: SC

NEW DELHI, May 9 (PTI) — The Supreme Court today directed AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha to stand trial in the Rs 6.5 crore coal import scam case and set aside a Chennai special court and the Madras High Court orders discharging her from the case.

“We have no doubt in our minds that the (trial) court would not, and should not, have discharged Ms Jayalalitha at this premature stage in respect to the offences charged against the other nine accused”, a Division Bench comprising Justice K.T. Thomas and Justice R.C. Lahoti said.

The Bench said, “Therefore, we set aside the order passed by the special court discharging the respondent, Ms Jayalalitha, and that of the high court which confirmed the said order.”

The prosecution case was that during 1992-93, Ms Jayalalitha and 10 others and certain foreign coal suppliers had entered into a criminal conspiracy to import coal for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) for such price as to obtain huge pecuniary advantage to themselves by causing heavy loss to the state to the tune of about Rs 6.5 crore.

The PWD Secretary of the state government had raised strong objections against the acceptance of tenders by Indonesian firms to supply coal at $ 40.20 per metric tonne when a Singapore firm was ready to supply coal at $35.24 per tonne.

Others against whom charges were framed include a former PWD minister, the then Chief Secretary, a former Chairman of the TNEB and former Secretaries for Finance and Industries.

The prosecution contended that such a conspiracy could not have been hatched without the connivance of the then Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalitha, as she had issued an order that no tender of over Rs 1 crore could be finalised without the consent of the Chief Minister.

Justice Thomas, writing the judgement for the Bench, said “if Ms Jayalalitha came to know of those prompt warnings and despite them she accorded her green signal to import coal, how could it be concluded at this premature stage that she was not aware of the serious implications of the clandestine deal on the state exchequer.”

The apex court said, “this is not the stage for weighing the pros and cons of the implications of the materials nor for shifting the materials presented by the prosecution.

“The exercise at this stage should be confined to considering the police report and the documents to decide whether the allegations against the accused are ‘groundless’ or whether “there is ground for presuming that the accused has committed the offence’,” it said.

Regarding her personal presence during the trial, Justice Thomas said the trial court would exempt her from personal appearance before it on the condition that her counsel would be present on all hearing days and she would be present in court as an when the court required it.

CHENNAI: A special judge, trying cases of corruption during the previous AIADMK regime, on Tuesday ordered the issuance of summons to three defence witnesses, including two IAS officials, to appear before the court on May 15 for examination in the Rs 10.16 crore colour television sets scam case, in which Ms Jayalalitha is the prime accused.

Special Judge-2 V. Radhakrishnan ordered the issuance of summons to the IAS officials, Ms S. Natarajan and Mr Chandra Mohan, former Deputy Secretaries to Ms Jayalalitha and Mr K. Vaidyanathan for examination on a petition filed by Ms Jayalalitha, seeking permission of the court to examine the defence witnesses.

The prosecution case was that there were alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 10.16 crore in the purchase of 45,302 colour television sets, meant for local bodies during the previous AIADMK regime.

The Supreme Court had on May 5, permitted Ms Jayalalitha to have herself and three others examined as defence witnesses in the case.