Sasikala Natarajan appears in FERA case via video conference

Lodged in Parappana Agrahara central prison in Bengaluru, Sasikala Natarajan appeared before a Chennai court via video conferencing on Wednesday. Accused of FERA violation by the Enforcement Directorate, charges will be framed against Sasikala in the two-decade old case.

Sasikala was allowed to appear via video conferencing before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Economic Offence-I) in Egmore after her counsel submitted medical reasons for her inability to travel. Sasikala is all set to appear from prison via video conferencing and hear the charges being framed against her. Sasikala will be given the documents for signature purposes later. Officials of the Enforcement Directorate, as well as Karnataka prison authorities, were ordered to make arrangements enabling her to appear before the court through the



facility.

The ED had filed five cases against Sasikala Natarajan, her nephew Bhaskaran and JJ TV for violating FERA regulations. They are accused of making payments in US and Singapore dollars to foreign firms for hiring transponders, equipment and uplink facilities for J J TV during 1995 and 1996.

The ED claims that the payments were illegally routed to US-based Rimsat through firms having networks in Philippines and Singapore. The prosecution has told the court that Sasikala and Bhaskaran violated RBI norms and paid US $ 10 lakh and US $ 3.6 lakh to these companies. While a trial court had discharged Sasikala from the case earlier, the Madras high court struck down the order making way for charges to be framed against the accused. On Tuesday, charges were framed against Bhaskaran by the court in the case.