By IANS,
Bangalore : The city’s central jail will turn into a fortress Thursday, not because former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa is lodged there, but to facilitate Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa’s appearance in a court in the complex.
Around 1,000 police personnel, headed by a joint commissioner of police, will be on duty around the jail complex in the eastern suburb of Parappana Agrahara where a Bangalore court will hold a special sitting to record Jayalalithaa’s statement in a corruption case against her.
“We have imposed prohibitory orders banning assembly of five or more persons in a 500 metre radius of the jail complex from late Wednesday till the Tamil Nadu chief minister leaves for Chennai Thursday,” a Bangalore city police spokesperson told IANS.
Jayalalithaa is to give her statement in the over a decade-old case in which she is charged with amassing Rs.66 crore between 1991 and 1996 when she was chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
This will be the first appearance of Jayalalithaa in the Bangalore court to which the case was shifted from Chennai in November 2003 to ensure free and fair trial.
Her last minute bid to get exemption from personal appearance citing security concerns or to change the venue of the court sitting failed Wednesday with the Supreme Court rejecting her plea and directing her to appear Thursday.
Following the apex court decision, the special court judge B.M. Mallikarjunaiah, who is hearing the disproportionate assets case, also directed Jayalalithaa to appear before him Thursday.
He also rejected her plea to shift the venue of his sitting from the jail complex to the premises of a flying school as that was closer to the Bangalore International Airport, about 35 km from city centre.
The Parappana Agrahara is about 60 km from the international airport.