BANGALORE: The trial in the high-profile Chitralekha Urs murder case is scheduled to begin in a fast track sessions court from Tuesday. This is the fourth time that a date has been fixed after having been put off thrice earlier.

Judge Savitri Vinayaka will be conducting the trial. During the first phase of the trial, the Judge is scheduled to examine Chitralekha Urs's elder sister, Hema Mandanna and her husband Ashok Mandanna, Chitralekha's mother Sharada Urs and Chitralekha's other sister Nayan Tara. Summons have been issued to 45 witnesses.

The court had first fixed the trial for October 4, 2005. It was put off to January 20, 2006. After some time was taken for the legal challenges by the defence, the hearing was posted to March 1. This was rescheduled to May 29 following a road accident involving the Special Public Prosecutor K. Janardhan.

Chitralekha Urs, daughter of the former High Court Judge, the late M.P. Chandrakanth Raje Urs, was murdered on January 19, 2004. Her body was found in Shiradi Ghat near Hassan two months later.

The First Fast Track Sessions Court has framed charges against the main accused Bharati Urs, daughter of former Chief Minister the late Devaraja Urs. The court has also filed charges against the other two accused T. Madhukar and L.N. Chandrakant.

The three have been charged with hatching a conspiracy to murder Chitralekha. They were also charged with committing the offence for the sake of money and also that they had destroyed evidence. They have been in judicial custody since March 2004.

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