SC dismisses V.K. Sasikala's plea to review her conviction in DA case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea filed by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary V.K. Sasikala seeking review of her conviction in a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case.

In February, the Supreme Court upheld Sasikala's conviction in the same disproportionate assets case as Jayalalithaa.

Sasikala had moved the Supreme Court seeking re-examination of its verdict in the disproportionate assets case in May this year.

She was handed a four-year jail term along with a fine of Rs 10 crore.

The review petition filed by the AIADMK leader and two others, V. N. Sudhakaran, Jayalalithaa's foster son, and Elavarasi, widow of Sasikala's elder brother, had challenged the setting aside of the Karnataka High Court verdict acquitting her and restoring the trial court verdict.

The trial court in Bengaluru had convicted Sasikala along with Jayalalithaa, Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, in the case for amassing assets disproportionate to their income.

In her petition, Sasikala had relied on an earlier apex court verdict of 1991 in which after the death of a prime accused, the proceeding against the co-accused was also abated in a corruption case.

Sasikala was convicted in the case by apex court on February 14.

The special trial court had found disproportionate assets worth Rs 53.60 crore, which Jayalalithaa and the three others could not account for.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had alleged that the unaccounted wealth was in the tune of Rs 66.65 crore.

With this, legal options in front of Sasikala to come out of jail, have reduced further.

This major setback comes at a time when Tamil Nadu politics is going through a churning.

The rival AIADMK factions joined hands but a day after, 19 MLAs withdrew support.