Jayalalithaa will have to step down as CM for second time
The case had been crippled by delays on various counts including changes of the Special Public Prosecutor appointed to carry out the trial.
A supporter of AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalitha cries as the latter leaves her Poes Garden residence to appear before a Bangalore special court in connection with a disproportionate assets case, in Chennai on Saturday. (Source: PTI)
The 66-year-old Jayalalithaa has been charged under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 in the disproportionate assets case along with three others.
In a previous instance in September 2001 during her second term in power Jayalalitha had been forced to step down as Chief Minister after she was convicted to five years of imprisonment in the Tansi land scam case.
The Supreme Court had ruled that she cannot be Chief Minister when convicted in a criminal case. Jayalalithaa however returned as Chief Minister five months later in March 2002 after being acquitted of the charges in the Tansi case.
The special judge, in Rs 66.65 crore Disproportionate Assets case, John Michael Cunha was orginally scheduled to pronounce judgment in the Jayalalitha case on September 20 but the case was posted to September 27 after concerns were raised about security. The case was shifted to a court attached to the Bangalore Central Prison located on the outskirts of the city.
Jayalalitha and three associates – her former close friend V K Sasikala, Sasikala’s nephew V N Sudhakaran and sister-in-law J Illavarasi have been accused of acquiring Rs 66.65 crore worth of assets by corrupt means between 1991-96 during Jayalalithaa’s first tenure as Chief Minister.
The Disproportionate Assets case was registered in 1997 and investigations were carried out under the DMK regime which deposed Jayalalitha from power in April 1996. The case was transferred to Karnataka by the Supreme Court in 2003 on a plea by a DMK official K Anbazhagan alleging subversion of the trial by Jayalalitha when she returned as Tamil Nadu chief minister in May 2001.
The case had been crippled by delays on various counts including changes of the Special Public Prosecutor appointed to carry out the trial. The High Court appointed SPP in the case, B V Acharya, had quit in August 2012 after accusing the then BJP government in Karnataka of seeking his ouster to further political ties with Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK party.
A second public prosecutor appointed in the case, Bhawani Singh, was threatened with a fine of Rs 60,000 per day by the special court last year for seeking frequent adjournments and delaying the trial. The court in its judgment is expected to make observations about the conduct of the accused and the prosecution in causing delays in the trial.
The special court in the course of the trial took into its custody key evidence in the case in the form of 23 kg of gold, 1165 kg of silver and 91 wrist watches that had been seized from Jayalalithaa and the co-accused by the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance in Chennai in 1997.
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