Jayalalitha acquitted in colour TV scam

CHENNAI, MAY 30: Former Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, her confidante N Sasikala and Sasikala's close relative S R Baskaran were on Tuesday...

CHENNAI, MAY 30: Former Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, her confidante N Sasikala and Sasikala8217;s close relative S R Baskaran were on Tuesday acquitted from the Rs 10.16 crore colour TV case.

Special Court-II judge V Radhakrishnan, who acquitted the three on benefit of doubt, however, convicted former AIADMK local administration minister T M Selvaganapathy. Suspended IAS officers H M Pandey and M Sathiamurthy, former chief secretary N Haribhaskar, Selvaganapathy8217;s then PA K Janarthanan and two agents S Duraisamy and S Muthukumarasamy were also convicted. They were all sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment.

The convicts were asked to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each, failing which they have to undergo simple imprisonment for an additional three months.

In his 101-page judgment in Tamil, the judge discharged all the accused from the charge of 120-B criminal conspiracy. He held that the charges against Jayalalitha were not proved beyond doubt. As for Sasikala and Baskaran, the judge pointed out that the prosecution itself had given up the charges during the course of arguments.

Former AIADMK finance minister V R Nedunchezhiyan, the third accused in the case, had already been discharged from the case by the Madras High Court. He passed away later.

Later in the evening, the convicts were taken to the Vellore Central Prison. The judge did not stay the operation of his order to enable the convicts to go on appeal since the sentence exceeded three years. All the accused were present in the court when the judgment was delivered.

After the judgment, a visibly happy Jayalalitha and Sasikala left the court. However, she evaded queries from mediapersons outside the court. Before leaving the court hall, she told Selvaganapathy, now a Sabarimala pilgrim, that his interests would be taken care of by the party.

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AIADMK advocates and partymen, including former ministers, broke into an applause when the judge announced that Jayalalitha, Sasikala and Baskaran were acquitted. As the word reached outside, the waiting AIADMK cadres distributed sweets and raised slogans hailing their leader.

The police had made elaborate arrangements to check any untoward incident. Partymen were kept about 100 yards away from the court entrance.