The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court, Egmore, has issued a warrant for production of jailed AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala on December 13 in cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA).
Against the order of the court, Ms. Sasikala’s advocate Ashokan filed a criminal original petition challenging it in the Madras High Court. During the tenure of previous ACMM A. Zakir Hussain, the charges were framed against her and other accused through the video- conferencing facility.
The Enforcement Directorate had alleged that as chairperson-cum-director of JJTV Private Limited, Sasikala authorised the company’s managing director and her nephew V. Bhaskaran to negotiate and enter into a contract with any foreign supplier of a transponder facility for the launch of a Tamil satellite television channel in the early 1990s.
In pursuit of this, payments were made to firms in U.S. and Singapore dollars for hiring transponders and uplinking facilities for JJ TV without getting the permission of the Reserve Bank of India.
‘Skipped summons’
Sasikala and Mr. Bhaskaran were cited as accused in these cases. On November 30, ACMM- II S. Malarmathi, who is also in charge of ACMM court, found that the accused had not signed the papers relating to framing of charges and noted that she did not appear before the court as directed earlier citing health reasons.
Hence, the ACMM directed a warrant to be issued for production of Ms. Sasikala before the court for the proceedings. Her advocate Ashokan’s criminal original petition challenging the order of the trial court in the Madras High Court is likely to come up for hearing next week.
