The Special Court, which is conducting the trial for the disproportionate assets case against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, will be temporarily shifted to Gandhi Bhavan near Bangalore Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara for security reasons. Ms. Jayalaithaa will personally appear in the court on October 20 to record her statement.
B.M. Mallikarjunaiah, judge, Special Court , passed an order in this regard as the police informed the court that there were many hurdles to ensuring Z+ security cover to the City Civil and Sessions Court complex, where the court is located now.
The police suggested four locations — Judicial Academy, Balabrooie Guesthouse, the Government Flying School at Jakkur and Gandhi Bhavan near the Central Prison premises at Parappana Agrahara — in their report on relocation of the court. They said that Flying School premises would be a better choice as it had a superior access control mechanism for security arrangements. The police also said that they were prepared to provide security at any of these locations as per the court's directive.
The court, in the morning session of the hearing, was impressed with this suggestion as Special Public Prosecutor B.V. Acharya too accepted this location, and the judge said he would pass orders in the afternoon.
However, when the judge wanted to know in the afternoon about the infrastructure available at the Flying School, he was told that no such facility was available there whereas the required infrastructure was available at Gandhi Bhavan, as a few special courts had conducted trials in a couple of sensitive cases there.
Noting that only two days were left for the date (October 20) fixed by the Supreme Court to record Ms. Jayalalithaa's statement, the judge ordered that the Special Court would be temporarily shifted to the Gandhi Bhavan premises. When Ms. Jayalalithaa's counsel pointed out the availability of a helipad on the Flying School premises unlike other locations, the police pointed out that helipads were available at places close to the Central Prison.
The judge also directed the police and other authorities to make security and other arrangements at Gandhi Bhavan for conducting the proceedings from October 20 onwards.
