The Supreme Court today declined to stay the trial in a disproportionate assets case involving Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s estranged aide Sasikala Natrajan, both of whom are facing the proceedings in a Bangalore court.
A vacation bench of justices H. L. Gokhale and Ranjana Prakash Desai, however, allowed Sasikala to place on record relevant materials based on her claim that she has not been provided with certain documents relating to the questions being put to her in the ongoing day-to-day trial.
“We can’t give any interim relief and the trial will continue,” the bench observed, but granted two weeks time to Ms. Sasikala to place on record the necessary material in support of her contention.
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Senior counsel Sekhar Naphade told the bench that she had already answered 599 questions by the prosecution and 1,000 more are expected and as an interim measure Ms. Sasikala wanted the trial to be stayed.
He maintained that in order to answer these 1,000-odd questions, the defence needed certain documents which are part of the case, but are not being granted to the accused.