The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict in an appeal filed by the Karnataka government against the acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case, reported Mint.
The two-judge bench comprising of justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Amitava Roy held daily hearings in the case from February until last week.
“Disproportionate assets is not a crime. It is only a crime if it is proved that the source of the money is illegal. Otherwise it [the illegality of disproportionate assets] is only an inference,” Justice Amitava Roy observed recently.
A special court in Bengaluru had in September 2014 convicted Jayalalithaa for amassing wealth of nearly Rs 67 crore disproportionate to her income when she was Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu between 1991 and 1996. She was sentenced to four years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 100 crore. Jayalalithaa became the first sitting Chief Minister to be disqualified after being convicted. The trial court had also convicted her aide Sasikala, foster son Sudhakaran and Sasikala’s sister-in-law Ilavarasi in the case.
The Karnataka High Court had overturned the trial court verdict and acquitted her last year, citing an error in computing the disproportionate assets and that they did not exceed 10 per cent of the stated income. Jayalalithaa returned to the CM’s chair in May 2015.