Special Judge Anbazhagan seeks transfer

CHENNAI, FEB 25: Apparently upset over the Madras High Court directive not to proceed further with the Special Court proceedings in the T...

CHENNAI, FEB 25: Apparently upset over the Madras High Court directive not to proceed further with the Special Court proceedings in the TANSI land and building case till March 1, Special Judge-III P Anbazhagan is understood to have sought a transfer to another court.

The judge was directed yesterday by the Madras High Court not to proceed with the case till March 1, following a petition from former rural industries minister Mohammad Asif, an accused in the case. Reliable sources confirmed that the judge has written to the High Court, asking that he “be posted to any of the four courts (mentioned by him)”.

The letter has been dispatched to the High Court, sources said. It is widely believed that Anbazhagan’s decision is a fall-out of the Madras High Court directive asking him to furnish a report in response to allegations of “biased functioning”, levelled against him by Asif. In his petition, Asif had sought that the TANSI case pending before Special Court-III be transferred to some other judge, as “the presiding judge was acting against the petitioner’s interests.”

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Presently, proceedings in eight cases are on in Special Court-III, prominent among which are the three TANSI cases involving Jaya Publications, Sasi Enterprises and R R Industries. In the first two cases, former chief minister J Jayalalitha and her close friend Sasikala Natarajan are the prime accused.

Legal circles say that if Anbazhagan’s request for a transfer is conceded by the High Court, the cases pending in his court may have to be heard afresh. Jayalalitha’s counsel had earlier sought that the Madras High Court division bench hear their petition afresh, challenging the constitution of the special courts after the transfer of Justice D Raju, one of the judges in the previous bench.