The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has obtained a second set of penalty orders in the JJ TV scam against aides of AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa. Following penalties totalling Rs 18 crore imposed on directors of the company —- V Bhaskaran and V K Sasikala in February —- three more penalty orders to the tune of Rs 10.5 crore were adjudicated last month. With this, the total penalties imposed on the company have gone up to over Rs 28 crore.

The ED’s adjudication orders came after the Chennai High Court vacated the stay of adjudication proceedings in June 2005 in the cases, which date back to 1996-97, wherein the company contravened the Foreign Exchange. These three adjudication orders pertain to allegations of JJ TV acquiring foreign exchange to the extent of Singapore $ 10,45,000 and further routing this in 1996 to Intersputnik in Moscow and Singapore Telecom as transponder charges.

Besides, it is alleged that payments totalling Singapore $1,36,094 were made without RBI permission for purchase of telecasting equipment to Subic Bay Satellite Systems in Phillipines.

In the current set of three orders, Rs 4.5 crore was a penalty imposed on the company while Rs 3.4 crore and Rs 2.3 crore penalty was imposed respectively on the directors V Bhaskaran and V Sasikala. While Bhaskaran is the bro-ther of Jayalalithaa’s foster son, Sasikala is the ex-chief minister’s close confidant. Show-cause notices were issued to them in 1996 after which they obtained various injunctions for stay of ED proceedings from the Chennai HC.