Amma's deposition! Amma's Mantra!

Ignorance seems to be the ploy that was adopted by Amma during the marathon questioning on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Parappana Agrahara in Bengaluru special Court.   Jayalalitha, was advised by her counsel to plead ignorance to most of the questions posed by Special Judge Mallikarjunaiah in Bengaluru. Out of the total of 1339 questions prepared by Mallikarjunaiah for Jaya, she completed answering all the questions in a cramped atmosphere. 

As soon as Jayalalitha landed in Bengaluru in a special aircraft she was taken to the Special Court in a 22 vehicle convoy.  Bengaluru public watched in awe as Jayalalitha went to appear before the Judge to answer a  lot of uncomfortable questions for the second time.  Jayalalitha’s trip from the Airport to the Bengaluru Prison where the court was temporarily situated saw coverage by a battery of CCTV cameras and there was mounted surveillance along the route to ensure that nothing goes wrong.  The general public in Bengaluru even though they were subjected to hardship watched in awe...due to the kind of security cover provided for Jayalalitha by the Karnataka police...many Kanrataka journalists were saying it was a bit too much as the arrangements were on par with a visiting President, Prime Minister.

However, Amma was not amused or rather impressed.  Her anger was visible on both the days she appeared in the court...Jayalalitha declined the lunch offered to her by the Karnataka police and had her favourite vegetable sandwich along with her close aide Sasikala inside her official car.

Tuesday witnessed Jayalalitha being asked questions about her erstwhile foster son’s marriage.   Amma who fell foul with Sudakaran, one of the accused in the assets case was visibly irritated when questions were posed to her regarding the marriage.  

 
Indifferent to her irritation the Special Judge continued to bulldoze her with one question after another.   Jayalalitha was asked to explain the source of income for the expenditure incurred by her for the abandoned ‘foster son’s’ marriage. Amma chose to reply that the entire expense for the marriage was borne by the family of the bride, viz. Sivaji Ganesan.  In fact, Jayalalitha went to the extent of claiming that A R.Rahman, the music maestro performed for the marriage ‘free of cost’.   Regarding the questions on her partnership in Jaya Publications and Sasi enterprises, Jayalalitha took the stand that she is only a silent partner and not involved in any day-to-day financial transaction.   However Jayalalitha totally agreed and accepted the financial transactions of her bank accounts. 

 
Jayalalitha also denied knowledge about the jewels recovered in a suitcase in her house.  In fact she went to the extent to say that those suitcases were planted by the DVAC officials at her residence.

However sources in Bengaluru judicial circles say that the rebuttals of Jayalalitha at the fag end of the trial is not going to help her in anyway.  Sources also say that the statement of the music maestro A R.Rahman that he had received a sum of Rs.3 lakh rupees for performing at the foster son’s marriage is on record during his deposition.  Further statements from the Tamil Film Industry legend Shivaji Ganesan and his family members that they have not spent any money towards the marriage is also on record. 

B.Kumar

Jayalalitha’s plea that the search warrant issued by a court is only to search in Tamil Nadu alone and they don’t have any jurisdiction over Hyederabad – DVAC officials conducted searches in Jayalalitha’s garden in Hyderabad – also doesn’t have any legal sanctity, say advocates who are closely monitoring the trial.

Soon after these questions were asked an irritated Amma gave an earful to her counsel B.Kumar.  B.Kumar is now handling the trial of the assets case.   Jayalalitha vented out her entire irritation on B.Kumar that he is incompetent and unable to complete the questioning session in one day. 

  
Jayalalitha, who is conscious of the media when it comes to her corruption case...as corruption seems to be the biggest issue rocking this country had fixed November 22 as the date for appearance in Bengaluru court with an assessment that November 23 being the day of parliament session the entire coverage of the press would be on Parliament and the press would ignore Jaya’s appearance.

 
But alas…. !!! Amma being the queen bee her every movement attracted attention and the newspapers reported widely about her second appearance in the corruption case.  Similarly, since the Parliament has been adjourned, the focus turned on Amma.
 

Sources in Poes Garden say it will take some time for an irate Amma to cool off and the people who would bear Amma’s ire will obviously be the DMK people is what the buzz in power circles of Tamil Nadu. And the first victim appears to be former Law Minister Duraimurugan on whom the DVAC has registered the second assets case and commenced simultaneous raids at Duraimurugan and his relatives’ house on Thursday.