US EDITION
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Judge furious as Jaya falls 'sick'

A special court could not file the chargesheet against former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha and five others in the Tansi land deal case as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary and her erstwhile ministerial colleague Mohamad Asif did not turn up before the court due to 'illness'. The charges would now be filed on May 28.

Observing that the motive of the two accused was to delay the trial proceedings, a visibly annoyed Judge P Anbazhagan adjourned the hearing in the case to May 28, ignoring the repeated pleas by the defence to have the next hearing in the first week of June.

If Jayalalitha and Asif -- who were cited as the first and fourth accused respectively in the case - fail to turn up on May 28, they could be referred to the dean of the government general hospital to ascertain their health condition, the judge said and retired to his chamber.

When the case came up for hearing this morning, Jayalalitha's counsel N Jyothi told the court that his client could not come to the court as she was suffering from viral fever, diabetes and hypertension for the past two days. He produced a medical certificate which advised bed rest for Jayalalitha for a week.

Similarly, the counsel for Asif produced a certificate stating that the accused, a heart patient, had been admitted to the intensive care unit of the Sri Ramachandra Medical College hospital at Porur, Madras.

Tell us what you think of this report