Stage set for Jaya back as CM

The pendulum of fortune has once again swung the way of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha, acquitted by the Karnataka High Court on charges of amassing assets disproportionate to her known sources of income.  Called the DA (disproportionate assets) case in short, Jayalalitha’s fate hit a nadir last September when a special court ruled her guilty.  The voluminous verdict of the trial court after a thorough investigation in the case argued by a strong prosecution, ruled against the former CM and three of her associates. The serious charge was that Jayalalitha had accumulated wealth illegally between 1991 and 1996, her first tenure as CM. The court had gone into reams of evidence put up by the charge sheet which investigated the allegations of corruption, flaunting of wealth during the lavish wedding of her `foster son’, the so-called business transactions, expensive clothing, footwear, wristwatches, jewellery and several inter-connected bank accounts. It was not just charges of corruption. The case, originally fought in a Chennai court, was shifted to Karnataka at the direction of the Supreme Court following allegations of attempting to subvert trial in Tamil Nadu. Besides the four-year jail sentence, the Bengaluru trial court slapped hefty fines as the verdict was applauded for brining to justice a political leader who faced several graft cases in a span of two decades. 

Thus, when the Karnataka High Court pronounced its judgment on Monday, it was accompanied by a palpable feeling of surprise as she had been completely absolved of any wrongdoing and emerged as “pure gold”, to quote the former CM herself. Justice C R Kumaraswamy reversed all substantive findings of the lower court.  If the special court had calculated that the former chief minister had amassed unaccounted money worth Rs 53.60 crore, the High Court verdict brought it down to Rs 2.82 crore.  It meant that Jayalalitha had exceeded her known sources of income of Rs 34.76 crore by just 8.12 per cent.  This fell below 10 per cent that has been allowed by the Supreme Court in an earlier judgment.  

However, the last word has not been said on the subject.  The action will most probably shift to the Supreme Court.  While the Karnataka government is yet to make up its mind on moving the apex court, original petitioner Subramanian Swamy has stated that he would go on appeal before the Supreme Court. But before that, the stage is now set for Jayalalitha to return as the chief minister with a lot more moral and political authority.