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Court summons Jaya in coal import scam case

Special judge-II V Radhakrishnan on Tuesday ordered the issuance of summons to former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha to appear before the court on July 3 for trial in the Rs 65 million coal import scam case.

The judge ordered issuance of summons while allowing a memo filed by the prosecution stating that in view of the Supreme Court judgment, Jayalalitha may be summoned for trial.

A division bench of the apex court comprising Justices K T Thomas and R C Lahoti of the Supreme Court had, on May 9, directed Jayalalitha to face trial in the case and set aside a Madras high court order upholding the special court discharging her from the case.

The bench also held that the trial court would not and should not have discharged Jayalalitha at this premature stage of the case.

The prosecution case was that during 1992-93, Jayalalitha and nine others had entered into a criminal conspiracy to import reportedly substandard coal for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board, causing a wrongful loss to the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 65 million.

Besides Jayalalitha, the other important accused in the case are former AIADMK minister S Kannappan, the then chief secretary T V Venkatraman, the then TNEB chairman N Haribhaskar and IAS officials Narayanan and Sri Ramachandaran.

UNI

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