NEW DELHI, Aug 22: The Supreme Court today refused to exempt DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal from deposing as a witness in the 2G scam case but exempted her from personal appearance in trial court and directed that she be examined by a commission in Chennai.
“No question of her exemption arises,” a bench of justices G S Singhvi and K S Radhakrishnan said when the counsel appearing for Ammal’s daughter said she is not fit to depose.
The bench said the according to a medical board report, she is unfit to depose as a witness before the court as she cannot travel and asked the special CBI court hearing the 2G case, to appoint a commission to examine her in the case in Chennai where she resides.
“We are satisfied that the purpose would be served by appointing a commission to examine her in Chennai,” the bench said.
Earlier, the apex court had on July 10 directed AIIMS director to constitute a medical board to examine whether Ammal is medically fit to depose as a witness before the special court.
Karunanidhi’s daughter and DMK MP Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar, Managing Director of the TV channel, are also facing trial in the case along with former Telecom Minister A Raja, DB Realty Ltd MD Vinod Goenka and others.
The bench passed the order on a plea filed by Ammal’s daughter Selvi seeking court’s direction to exempt her mother from appearing before the trial court as prosecution witness on medical ground.
In the petition, it was submitted that due to her physical and mental condition, Ammal is prone to “abrasive behaviour, clumsy habit with sudden hitting or punching people, inappropriate talk and action and inability to take care of day-to-day activities”.
The petition was filed against the special CBI court’s order refusing to exempt 82-year-old Ammal from appearing as a witness in the case.
The plea for exempting Ammal from appearing as a prosecution witness had earlier been moved in the Delhi High Court which on July 4 asked her to approach the apex court for relief, as the 2G case is being monitored by it.
The special CBI court had on May 31 dismissed Ammal’s exemption plea, saying she is an “important witness” as she was a director in Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd in which an alleged bribe amount of Rs 200 crore was received.
CBI had, in its charge sheet, dwelt on the routing of over Rs 200 crore illegal gratification from M/S Dynamix Realty to Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd through M/S Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd and Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd.
In its first charge sheet filed on April 2, 2011, CBI had said the money had travelled through a “circuitous route” through Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, a DB group company and Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd, to Kalaignar TV in which Ammal, Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar were having 60, 20 and 20 per cent shares respectively.
Ammal was not named as an accused in the case by CBI which had said due to her advanced age and “non-understanding” of any language other than Tamil, she was only fulfilling the legal requirements of Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd in which she is one of the directors.
CBI had said Ammal had delegated her power to Sharad Kumar to run the company’s affairs. (PTI)
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