TANSI, Pleasant Stay cases: all appeals to be heard together

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, AUG. 23. Mr. K. Venkatapathy, specially-appointed prosecutor to conduct the Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa's appeals against her conviction in the TANSI land deal cases and the Pleasant Stay Hotel case, will deal with the appeals of all 17 accused.

The order was passed today by the First Bench of the Madras High Court comprising the Chief Justice, Mr. N.K. Jain, and Mr. Justice P. Thangavel, which allowed a memorandum filed by Mr. Venkatapathy.

In his memo, the former Advocate-General said the total number of appellants in these cases was 18. One of the accused, Mr. Palai Shanmugam, was no more, 17 appeals were pending disposal now.

Mr. Venkatapathy said all appeals were inter-related and oral as well as documentary evidence was common for all of them. Noting that only three appeals had been posted for hearing, he said, ``they cannot be delinked from each other as has been done by the Registry''.

Meanwhile, Mr. Venkatapathy has appointed six independent juniors to assist him: Mr. P. Wilson, Mr. N.R. Ilango, Mr. Sundar Mohan, Mr. Punniakodi, Mr. Balaguru and Mr. Rajasekaran.

'Crucial statements missing'

In a related development, Mr. Venkatapathy complained to the High Court Registry that the appeal documents supplied to him were not in order. He said crucial statements were missing from the file and he had not been provided with a copy of the trial court judgment.

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Section  : Southern States
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