A special court in Bengaluru ruled that the assets of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa that were seized should be confiscated by the government and not given to her legal heirs. Passing the judgement, special court judge HA Mohan said that these assets were acquired by illegal means and rejected the pleas of the former CM’s niece J Deepa and nephew J Deepak. The assets in question included gold, diamonds, and silver.
According to The Hindu, HA Mohan said that four persons including Jayalalithaa, her close aid VK Sasikala, J Ilavarasi (Sasikala’s sister-in-law) and VN Sudhakaran (Jayalalithaa’s foster son) “colluded together and created namesake companies and invested all the ill-gotten money and acquired disproportionate assets”. The judge further noted that both the special court and the Supreme Court had passed judgements saying that the wealth was acquired illegally and for this reason, it could not be handed over to her heirs.
Deepa and Deepak had filed a petition seeking the transfer of the seized assets to them on the grounds that Jayalalithaa was not convicted by the Supreme Court in 2017 and the charges against her were abated. Arguments on behalf of Deepak and Deepa stated that since the former chief minister died before the judgement was passed, she did not have the “stigma of conviction,” and as legal heirs, they were entitled to the assets.
However, HA Mohan rejected this argument saying that under the given circumstances, it is not possible for the legal heirs to stake claim to the confiscated assets. Apart from that, the judge also noted that there was no clear division of assets between Jayalalithaa and the other three persons. He also said that the Supreme Court directed the concerned authorities to abate the case against Jayalalithaa only with regard to the punishment and not the confiscation of the assets itself.