Headlines
Jayalalithaa acquitted in disproportionate assets' case
Bengaluru, May 11
In a relief to former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, a
special bench of the Karnataka High Court on Monday acquitted her in the
Rs.66.65-crore disproportionate assets' case. She was convicted and
sentenced to four years' imprisonment by a lower court earlier.
Pronouncing
the much-awaited verdict on the appeal by 67-year-old Jayalalithaa
filed against the trial court judgment on September 27, 2014, Justice
C.R. Kumaraswamy set aside all the charges on which she was convicted,
sentenced to four years' jail term and fined Rs.100 crore. The charges
were not "sustainable", the judge ruled.
The judge ordered the lower court to release Jayalalithaa's assets that were confiscated during the case.
The
case dragged on for 18 years first in Tamil Nadu and later in Karnataka
after the Supreme Court transferred it to Bengaluru in November 2002.
The
judge also acquitted Jayalalithaa's three co-convicts who were
sentenced for four years of jail term and fined Rs.10 crore each.
The
three co-convicts are Sasikala Natarajan, her nephew V.N. Sudhakaran
and her aunt J. Ellavarsi. Sudhakaran is also the disowned foster son of
Jayalalithaa.
The apex court on October 17, 2014, granted an
interim bail till December 18 to Jayalalithaa and the three co-convicts
by suspending her sentence. Their bail was subsequently extended till
May 12.
Jayalalithaa had also spent three weeks from September 27
to October 17 in the central jail on the city's outskirts after the
high court rejected her bail petition on October 7 and till the apex
court granted her interim bail on October 17.
Hundreds of
supporters and cadres of the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu greeted the
verdict with loud cheers, bursting of fire crackers and dancing in
Cubbon Park, a km away from the high court complex.
About a dozen
lawyers of Jayalalithaa and the three others also distributed sweets
and exchanged greetings with her supporters and her party leaders within
minutes after the verdict was delivered around 11 a.m.