Karnataka HC reserves order on Jaya case

The Karnataka high court today reserved its order in the hearing of the appeals filed by former chief minister Jayalalithaa and three others challenging their conviction in the disproportionate assets case.

Justice CR Kumaraswamy, as he wound up the hearing, reserved the order after defence counsels filed their replies, challenging the written submissions made by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in the case. The judge had on Mar 9 directed Swamy to make written submissions by today.

Swamy, in his submissions, prayed to dismiss the appeal as it is “vague, unmerited and devoid of substance” and to confirm the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court.

“I pray to your Lordship to dismiss with costs the appeal being vague, which is without merit and devoid of substance, and confirm conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court and thus render justice,” he said. Swamy said Jaya, who owns about ten acres grape-vine farm land in Hyderabad, claimed an income of about Rs 1 lakh per acre from it, which is “abnormal and unbelievable agri income.”

“A-1 (Jayalalithaa), who owns about ten acres of grape-vine farm land in Hyderabad, has claimed an income of about Rs 1 lakh per acre from it, which is abnormal and unbelievable agricultural income during the past years when she was the chief minister when in fact she was not in a position to build a farmhouse there with her own funds,” Swamy said. "If her claim of agricultural yields income is Rs 1 lakh per acre, perhaps she must be the most productive farmer in the whole world," he submitted.

Swamy also said "Jayalalithaa's wealth in 1992-93 (IT) return is stated by her to be about Rs 6 crore. This utterly is unbelievable and obviously represents ill-gotten wealth." "The largescale corruption engaged in by Jayalalithaa since becoming Chief Minister clearly comes out when one considers her poverty status in 1986 when she had to take a loan nearly Rs 4 lakh from Ramaswamy Wodeyar, the liquor baron, on instructions from the former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran to build her farmhouse in Hyderabad," he claimed.

"From a serious debtor in 1986, she (Jayalalithaa) has become a multi-crorepati without doing any gainful work on Rupee one salary," Swamy added. The Special Bench has been set up after the Supreme Court had on December 18 last directed the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court to constitute it to decide Jayalalithaa's appeal within three months.

A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, had granted bail to Jayalalithaa on the condition that hearing in the High Court on her appeal against conviction be completed in three months from December 18.

The special court had held Jayalalithaa and three others guilty of corruption and awarded four years jail term and slapped a fine of Rs 100 crore on her. It had also imposed a fine of Rs 10 crore each on three other convicts. Apart from Jayalalithaa, her close confidante Sasikala and her relatives Sudhakaran, erstwhile foster son of the AIADMK leader, and Elavarasi were also convicted.