Date:09/09/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/09/09/stories/2004090912910500.htm

Tamil Nadu

Documents collection almost over

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI, SEPT. 8. Twelve days after its arrival here, a team of Karnataka officials seems to have completed the task of verifying and collecting records in the `disproportionate wealth case' against the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa. However, the documents were not taken to Bangalore today as was expected.

The Registrar (Vigilance), Karnataka High Court, Venkatesh, said the collection of documents "was almost in the finishing stage." Asked about the delay in collecting the records, he said it was not one or two, but "thousands of documents" were involved. He said the records were likely to be moved "tomorrow or day after,"

The team arrived on August 27 following the Supreme Court's August 23 order directing the Tamil Nadu Government to transfer all the records relating to the case within a week. The apex court directed the Special Court in Bangalore, where the trial is to be held, to depute an official to collect the records from the Special Court here.

Sources told The Hindu that the verification and collection of documents were over. There seemed to be some hitch in the arrangements to be made for transferring the documents.