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'Karnataka should appeal against Jayalalithaa's acquittal'
Chennai, May 12
Two major opposition parties in
Tamil Nadu - the DMK and PMK - on Tuesday urged the Karnataka
government to go in appeal against the Karnataka High Court verdict
acquitting former chief minister Jayalalithaa in disproportionate assets
case.
The two parties claimed that there were arithmetical errors in the calculations of the high court.
In
a statement here, DMK president M. Karunanidhi said Karnataka High
Court Justice C.R. Krishnaswamy in his verdict has said Jayalalithaa did
not have assets worth around Rs.66 crore and overruled the trial
court's order.
Karunanidhi said listing out the borrowings from
Indian Bank by Jayalalithaa and others, the judge had arrived at a total
of Rs.24,17,31,274.
"Anybody who knows addition would tell the
total would be only Rs.10,67,31,274. But the judge had totalled it as
Rs.24,17,31,274 and said that it was wrong to file a case against
Jayalalithaa for disproportionate assets of Rs.66 crore," Karunanidhi
said.
The difference between these two figures is around Rs.13.50 crore.
Similarly,
the judge has reduced the amount spent on the wedding of Sudhakaran and
value of Jayalalithaa's house at Poes Garden without explaining the
rationale for that, Karunanidhi said.
The judge in his order said
the prosecution has mixed up assets of accused, firms and companies and
also added the cost of construction amounting to Rs.27,79,88,945 and
marriage expenses at Rs.6,45,04,222 to value the assets at
Rs.66,44,73,573.
"If we remove the exaggerated value of cost of
construction and marriage expenses, the assets will work out at
Rs.37,59,02,466," Justice Kumaraswamy said.
The total income of
the accused, firms and companies is Rs.34,76,65,654 and thus percentage
of disproportionate assets is 8.12 percent.
"It is relatively
small. In the instant case, the disproportionate asset is less than 10
percent and it is within permissible limit. Therefore, accused are
entitled for acquittal," the order stated.
"When the principal
accused has been acquitted, the other accused, who have played a lesser
role are also entitled for acquittal," Justice Kumaraswamy said.
PMK's Ramadoss said as per the high court's order, a sum of Rs.13.50 crore has been wrongly added to Jayalalithaa's income.
He said if this sum is deducted from Jayalalithaa's income then her total income would be Rs.21,26,65,654.
According to Ramadoss going by the high court's order, Jayalalithaa's assets are valued at Rs.37,59,02,466.
The
difference between the value of assets and her total income works out
to Rs.16,32,36,812, which is 76.75 percent higher than Jayalalithaa's
income, Ramadoss said.
He added that Jayalalithaa and her
associates could not be acquitted even under criterion in the
Krishnanand Agnihotri (Krishnanand Aggnihotri vs State of MP) case,
where it was held that if there is disproportionate asset to the extent
of 10 percent, the accused are entitled for acquittal.
Neither
could Jayalalithaa and her associates be released under the Andhra
Pradesh government circular that states that disproportionate assets to
the extent of 20 percent can also be considered as a permissible limit,
Ramadoss said.
Hence Karuanidhi and Ramadoss have urged the
Karnataka government to go in appeal in the Supreme Court against the
high court judgment.
A DMK leader told IANS on the condition of anonymity that the party is also exploring legal options.
DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan is one of the petitioners in the case against Jayalalithaa.