By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday refused to stall a judicial probe by the Tamil Nadu government into allegations of land grabbing by former chief minister J. Jayalalitha.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan refused to stall the probe saying that it will not suspend the Madras High Court order giving a green signal to the probe by a one-man judicial panel headed by Justice K.P. Sivasubramaniam, a retired high court judge.
The probe by the present government had been challenged by a close aide of Jayalalitha on the grounds that it was politically motivated.
The petition, filed by one T. Chitra, said that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi personally ordered a Commission of Inquiry without getting mandatory cabinet approval.
The commission was set up to probe allegations by the ruling DMK and also CPI-M that a farmhouse in village Siruthavoor in Kanchipuram district belonged to Jayalalitha. The farmhouse was built on 53 acres of land given to Dalits by former chief minister C. Annadurai in 1967.
According to the allegations, the AIADMK chief used the farmhouse extensively during her tenure as chief minister, although she has maintained that she got the house on rent.