The mood at Court Hall No 6 was a mixture of excitement, dread and nervous anticipation. With the judgment in the Disproportionate Assets case expected to be delivered by Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Amitava Roy at 10.30am, the court hall was already packed by 10am.
More than a hundred lawyers were in attendance in the case. In the front sat Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, who is one of the petitioners in the case.
A number of lawyers for the DMK were also present, so were several journalists. The AIADMK had very few of its supporters in the courtroom.
As 10.30am passed, the intensity of the anticipation increased, until Justices Ghose and Roy walked into the courtroom five minutes later.
The two judges spent a few seconds first conferring with each other, as the rest of the court waited with bated breath.
Justice Ghose then picked up the judgement and flipped through it to the final orders. Looking up at the waiting faces, he said, “As you can see it’s a fatty judgment.”
Justice Roy chipped in, adding, “I would say that this is a very well-considered judgment.”
Finally, putting an end to the suspense, Justice Ghose read, “We set aside the judgment of the Karnataka HC, and uphold the judgement of the trial court. Accused A2-A4 are found guilty and the trial court’s order is restored. They have to surrender before the Bengaluru trial court immediately.”
Speaking of accused A1, the late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, he said that the case against her has abated.
This means that the court has set the case against her aside, following her death. But legal experts point out that she remains guilty, as, without her guilt, accused A2-A4 – Sasikala, her nephew and Jayalalithaa’s foster son Sudhakaran, and Sasikala’s sister-in-law Ilavarasi – cannot be held guilty of conspiracy.
What remains to be seen from the judgment that is still awaited is how the fines imposed on the disproportionate assets will be recovered. In Jayalalithaa’s case, the lower court had imposed a fine of Rs 100 crore on the late CM in its 2014 order.
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