Jayalalithaa sentenced to four years in jail
The Special Court in Bangalore on Saturday convicted and sentenced Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, a strong supporter of LTTE Tamil terrorists Jayalalithaa to four years in prison and a fine of 100 crores, in the disproportionate assets case.
Since the sentence in the case exceeded three years, the special court does not have jurisdiction to grant bail and she will be taken into custody.
Judge John Michael Cunha pronounced the verdict at Gandhi Bhavan, in front of Bangalore Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara, where the court has been temporarily shifted for pronouncing the verdict in view of Z+ security provided to Ms. Jayalalithaa.
The conviction in the case lead to her immediate disqualification as an MLA and made it untenable for her to hold the post of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
The other three accused in the case, V.K. Sasikala, V.N. Sudhakaran, and J. Ilavarasi, who were also convicted, were senetenced to four years in jail and a fine of 10 crores.
All four accused in the case were convicted under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in the disproportionate assets case registered almost 18 years ago.
Only the court staff, the four accused persons, around eight advocates representing the accused were allowed inside the court room while the journalists were restricted at a place nearly around 300 m away from the court complex due to security reasons.
While prosecution pressed for convicts, the accused sought liberal approach due to their age.
Under Section 13(2) and 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, under which she has been convicted attracts a minium punishment of one year and maximum upto seven years.
The prosecution had charged that the accused were purchasing defunct companies/firms from its original owners then launder money, obtained by corrupt means, through these companies. For this purpose 34 “shell” companies were set up and around 100 bank accounts were opened in the names of these companies and cash was deposited in these accounts.
V.K. Sasikala, V.N. Sudhakaran, and J. Ilavarasi were engaged in purchase of properties in the name these companies using ill-gotten money as benamis for Ms. Jayalalithaa.
The trial was shifted to Bangalore from Chennai in 2003 following Supreme Court’s order based on DMK leader K. Anbazhagan’s complaint that a “fair” trial was not possible at Chennai, as the AIADMK-appointed public prosecutor was “hand-in-glove” with the accused persons.
It took nealry 11 years for the Special Court in Bangalore to complete the trial due to multi-round littigation before the Karnataka High Court as well as the Supreme Court over several orders passed by the court during the trial.
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