Bengaluru – The Karnataka High Court today overturned a lower court’s conviction and acquitted AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa in the 19-year-old disproportionate assets case, paving the way for her return as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.
“Today’s verdict gives me immense satisfaction. It has removed the slander imposed on me and has erased the blame put on me by political enemies,” Jayalalithaa said in her first reaction hours after her acquittal. “All appeals have been upheld and the accused have been acquitted,” Justice CR Kumaraswamy pronounced in a jam-packed court room as he wrapped up the proceedings in minutes.
“The judgment of conviction and sentence passed by 36 Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, Bengaluru, is hereby set aside. Appellants — accused nos.1 to 4 — are acquitted of all charges levelled against them,” the order said.
Besides Jayalalithaa, the trial court, in an order pronounced in September last year, had sentenced her close aides Sasikala Natarajan and the latter’s relatives J Elavarasi and VN Sudhakaran to four-year imprisonment. Jayalalithaa was asked to pay Rs 100 crore as fine, while the remaining three accused had to pay Rs 10 crore each.
The High Court verdict triggered immediate jubilation among the AIADMK ranks who celebrated the event by bursting crackers, distributing sweets and dancing outside her residence in Chennai and across Tamil Nadu.
After she secured the clean chit, stop-gap Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and a host of party leaders trooped to her Poes Garden residence and held consultations apparently on her assuming reins of the office once again.
Delivering the verdict on the criminal appeals filed by Jayalalithaa and the three co-accused challenging the trial court order, Justice Kumaraswamy not only granted them relief from the sentence, but also set aside the trial court’s order regarding confiscation of their movable and immovable properties.
The judge pointed out that the chargesheet filed against Jayalalithaa did not specify the percentage of disproportionate income (in relation to her known sources of income).
“Omission to mention the percentage of disproportionate income in the chargesheet is not in accordance with the law. The case of the prosecution that accused no.1 amassed wealth and acquired agricultural lands, sites, floated firms, became director of companies cannot be believed because the money that has been spent for acquiring the said properties can be inferred from the loans borrowed from nationalised banks. Besides, the accused was having an income from Kodanadu Tea Estate for about 10 months,” the order said.
The High Court also disagreed with the trial court on the amount of the money spent by Jayalalithaa on the marriage of co-accused Sudhakaran (her foster son at the time of the marriage but later disowned by her).
“The trial court has assessed the marriage expenses at Rs 3 crore. There is no acceptable evidence to point out that A-1 (Jayalalithaa) has spent the money. In spite of it, the trial court has arrived at a figure of Rs 3 crore as modest and conservative estimation. Arriving at Rs 3 crore towards marriage expenses and fixing its liability to A-1 is not proper,” the appellate court observed.
The trial court judgment had automatically disqualified Jayalalithaa as an MLA and unseated her from the CM’s post. Now with the high court’s clean chit, she will again assume reins of the office at Fort St George in Chennai just one year ahead of the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK supremo, though, will have to contest the election again to become a member of the Tamil Nadu state Assembly.