Plea filed by defence in Jaya case posted for orders to Jan 29

Bangalore, Jan 27 (PTI) A special court today postedfor orders to January 29 applications filed by defence counselin the disproportionate assets case against former Tamil NaduChief Minister Jayalalithaa, seeking correction of "defects"in translated version of documents.Defence counsel Navaneetha Krishnan, who was directedby Special Judge B M Mallikarjunaiah to point out "defects andmistakes in the translated evidences one last time" on January19, filed two applications.

The first sought correction of defects pointed out inthe evidence of the 44 recalled witnesses out of the total259, while the second sought extension of six months time topoint out the defects in all the translated evidence.

Krishnan also submitted orally that the prosecutionhad taken one year to translate the documents from Tamil toEnglish taking the help of 25 translators and it was "nothumanly possible to point out the defects and furnish thecorrect version in a short time".

Assistant Special Public Prosecutor Sandesh Chowtafiled objections stating that the defence had been seekingextension of time "only to protract the proceedings and hasbeen seeking adjournment on some grounds or the other."Terming the application as "highly speculative,frivolous, vexatious and not bonafide", he stated thatsufficient time had already been granted and translated copiesfurnished to each one of the accused in 2005 itself."The court finally granted time to point out thedefects, if any, till today and there is no justification togrant any further time," he said.

Chowta also submitted that translation of evidencealready on record "is correct" and "whenever necessary,prosecution has no objection for this court to take intoconsideration, at the appropriate stage, the translationfurnished by the accused in the application.

"Similarly, in case of omissions, translated versionfurnished by the accused in the above application may be takeninto consideration."

The application (seeking extension of time) may bedismissed in the interest of justice and equity and the caseposted for recording of the statements of the accused underCrPC section 313 (power to examine the accused), he submitted.

After hearing the defence and prosecution, JudgeMalliakarjunaiah posted the applications for orders to January29.