Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday requested the Supreme Court to transfer the trial of the disproportionate asset case to Pondicherry instead of Karnataka.
Raising doubts about the possibility of a fair trial in Tamil Nadu, the apex court had in November directed the case to be transferred to a special court in Bangalore.
Jayalalithaa cited the anti-Tamil sentiments prevailing in the neighbouring state due to tension over the sharing of Cauvery River waters and the Karnataka government's decision to change the venue from a city civil court to a jail for security reasons as the reasons for her request.
She pointed out that the voluminous trial court records were in Tamil and most of the depositions of witnesses were also in Tamil and a trial in Karnataka would require translation of many documents.
"The translations would not be able to bring out the true purport of the statements," she feared and said this is another reason to shift the trial of the cases to Pondicherry, where the official language is Tamil.
The application was placed before a bench comprising Justice S N Variava and Justice H K Hema, which asked the counsel to place it before the Chief Justice of India.
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