ASSETS CASE: SC EXTENDS BAIL OF JAYALALITHAA BY FOUR MORE MONTHS

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NEW DELHI (TIP): The Supreme Court on December 18extended by four months the bail of former Tamil Naduchief minister J Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assetscase and asked the chief justice of Karnataka high courtto constitute a special bench to decide her pleaexpeditiously within three months.A bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu ordered thatthe hearing in the high court on the appeal filed by theAIADMK chief challenging her conviction and sentence inthe case, be conducted on a day-to-day basis.”Keeping in view the facts of the case, we request thechief justice of Karnataka high court to constitute aspecial bench for hearing of appeal on day-to-day basis.The hearing should be completed within three months,”the bench, also comprising Justice A K Sikri, said.”The bail granted by this court on October 17 isextended by another four months, that is, till April 18,2015,” the bench said.It also asked senior advocate KTS Tulsi, appearing forJayalalithaa, who was awarded four years jail term alongwith a fine of Rs 100 crore in the DA case, to provide acopy of documents of the case to BJP leader SubramanianSwamy.Swamy, during the brief hearing, raised the issue of lawand order in Tamil Nadu, saying the posters of the slainLTTE chief Prabhakaran are being pasted across the state.”We gave you (Swamy) the liberty that if there isanything against you, you just mention that before us. Wewill take a call,” the bench said.On October 17, the apex court had granted conditionalbail to Jayalalithaa, who was sent to jail by a trial court onSeptember 27, saying that hearing on her appeal againstconviction in high court should be completed in fivemonths from now.The apex court, which had also granted bail to theAIADMK chief’s close aide Sasikala and two of herrelatives, had refused to dispose of the bail plea whileposting the case for hearing on December 18.The 66-year-old politician, who had moved the SupremeCourt for bail on October 9 after she was denied bail bythe Karnataka high court, had submitted that she hadbeen sentenced to only four years jail in the case and shewas also suffering from various ailments, as grounds forher immediate relief.The special court had held Jayalalithaa and three othersguilty of corruption. The court had also slapped a fine ofRs 100 crore on the AIADMK chief and Rs 10 crore fine oneach of the three other convicts.

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