Procedure followed diligently before granting bail

The advocates and supporters of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha breathed easy, as the special court constituted to try the cases of disproportionate assets against her in the city accepted the sureties and issued orders to release her on bail.

Though the court was scheduled to begin proceedings at around 11 am, the counsels from Tamil Nadu, party workers of AIADMK from Tamil Nadu as well as in Karnataka had assembled in the court hall at around 9.30 am. The city police, as a security measure, had stationed adequate number of police personnel, who were found questioning every person, considering that earlier court hearings had witnessed a few minor unpleasant incidents. Top officials, including DCP (central) Sandeep Patil, were at the court hall to monitor the situation. 

When the hearing started to fulfil the bail conditions as directed by the Supreme Court, many of them struggled to find space in the hall. When Judge of Special Court, John Michael D’Cunha, began the hearing, the counsel for Jayalalitha furnished the copy of the Supreme Court order and the judge read out the operative portion and sought for the sureties as per the conditions of the Supreme Court.  Gunajyothi Pughazhendi, wife of Va Pughazhendi, AIADMK state secretary in Karnataka, and J Bharath, a resident Doddatogur in Bangalore, stood as surety for Jayalalitha, the accused number 1. G Raju and Lakshmipathi, residents of Singapalya and Thyagarajanagar, respectively, agreed to be surety for accused number 2, Shashikala. Lokesh S and M Anbambal stood surety for Sudhakaran, the accused number 3. Va Pughazhendi and V Rajendran were surety for Elavarasi. They all submitted their property details valued at Rs one crore each to the court.

The judge, while verifying the documents, questioned whether they are valued at Rs one crore each. The judge also questioned the sureties as to whether they know the accused. 

The judge asked whether they are aware of the fact that if they do not know the accused, they will be in trouble in case the accused jumps the bail as the property, the details of which they have submitted to the court, will be confiscated. All the persons who stood as surety said that they know the persons very well and they are aware of the fate of their properties in the event of the accused jumping bail.

When the judge said that the property documents submitted by Va Pughazhendi as surety for Elavarasi are not worth Rs one crore to satisfy the special court, the counsels offered another surety immediately. However, the judge said that it was not necessary and accepted the documents of Pughazhendi. After the completion of the process, the judge told the sureties that the originals of the property documents will be sent to the High Court and the same can be obtained from there. 

Court messenger

The counsel for the accused then requested for a special messenger to be sent to the prison to hand over the bail orders to the prison authorities to ensure the release of the accused. The court agreed to it.

Following the request of the counsel for the accused, the court (considering this as a special case) immediately dispatched the order to the Parappana Agrahara prisons. In the normal course, the bail orders are sent to the prisons in the evening as one lot.

Once the orders for release on bail were issued at around 1.30 pm, after due scrutiny of the documents offered by the sureties, the AIADMK cadre and advocates from Tamil Nadu celebrated by distributing sweets among themselves, before they headed to the Parappana Agrahara central prisons.