Updated by admin on
Thursday, October 09, 2014 08:25 PM IST
New Delhi:
New Delhi: AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on October 9 moved the Supreme Court against a Karnataka High Court order rejecting her petition for bail and suspension of sentence given by a Bengaluru special court in the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case.
Jayalalithaa, in her plea, has said she was a 66-year-old woman with ailments and pointed out that her appeal before the Karnataka High Court would not be decided for the next four years at least. Jayalalithaa was sentenced to four years’ simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 100 crore for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Co-accused — Sasikala Natarajan, V. Sudhakaran and J. Elavarasi — were sentenced to four years’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10 crore each.
As a result of the conviction, Jayalalithaa was automatically disqualified as an MLA and lost her post of Chief Minister.
She was lodged at the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru on September 27, 2014.
Jayalalithaa has urged the Supreme Court to provide an urgent hearing on her plea during the mentioning hour on October 10.
Jayalalithaa has pleaded that she has been sentenced only for four years in the case. She has also stated that she is also suffering from various ailments.
She maintained that as Chief Minister she did not misuse her powers in this case.
She also cited grounds of being a senior citizen and a woman for the bail plea.
Jayalalithaa's bail petition was rejected by the High Court on October 7. The Special Public Prosecutor had not objected to grant of conditional bail to her.
In her petitions seeking immediate bail, Jayalalithaa stated that the charge against her of amassing wealth during 1991—96, when she was the Chief Minister, was false and maintained that she had acquired property through legal means.
She also said that the trial court had overlooked several judgments and not considered the binding nature of various income tax orders and decisions of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which had accepted the income and the level of expenditure pleaded by her.
Justice A V Chandrashekara of the Karnataka High Court, who passed the interim order rejecting her bail plea, said there are "no grounds" to grant her relief. Corruption amounts to “violation of human rights” and leads to economic imbalance, the High Court judge had observed.
AIADMK chief and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa moved Supreme Court on October 8 for bail and suspension of sentence in the assets case.
The petition number 33174, however, is only for Jayalalithaa. The bail petition for the others - Jayalalithaa's aide Sasikala, VN Sudhakaran, the disowned foster son of the former chief minister, and Elavarasi - has not been filed.
Earlier on Tuesday, Karnataka High Court refused bail to her in the 18-year-old disproportionate assets case.
Justice AV Chandrashekhara had denied relief to Jayalalithaa, saying that there are "no grounds" to give her bail.
Noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani will lead the team of lawyers who will argue against the high court order denying bail to the AIADMK supremo.
Quoting various cases of the Supreme Court under Prevention of Corruption Act, the court had said, "In view of clear observation of the apex court that corruption is a violation of human rights, this is not a fit case for suspension and bail."
The court had not only refused to grant her bail, but also declined to stay the sentence of four-year imprisonment and Rs.100 crore penalty imposed on her in the case.
Jayalalithaa is lodged in a Bangalore prison since September 27 when a special court had convicted her in the disproportionate assets case and sentenced her to four years` simple imprisonment, with a fine of Rs.100 crore under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
