Ex-Minister Sengottaiyan submits affidavit in CBI court

Chennai, July 19 (UNI) Former Minister and AIADMK leader K A Sengottaiyan today filed an affidavit in the Special Court handling CBI cases here, seeking to furnish the Tamil translation of the chargesheet filed against him in a disproportionate wealth case.

Principal Special Judge for CBI cases Justice Meenakshi Sundaram adjourned the case to August eight.

In his affidavit, Mr Sengottaiyan said the complainant in the case, the Superintendent of Police, CBI/ACB/Chennai, had filed a chargesheet against him in English. As he was not conversant with English, he was still at a loss to understand why the prosecution had not filed the charge sheet in Tamil.

He pointed out a 1969 order on making Tamil the language of all criminal courts in Tamil Nadu and a 1976 GO issued by the Law Department that Tamil would be the language of all Criminal Courts, subordinate to Madras High Court. Besides, Article 14 Section c(i) of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights adopted by the General Assembly in 1966, signed by India, stipulated that a person charged with criminal offence was entitled to be informed promptly in a language which he understood.

The effective participation by the accused was the rule of law and such an effective participation was possible only if the person who was accused of the offence was in a position to understand the accusation against him, he said in his affidavit.

UNI