Jayalalithaa's illegal assets only 8 percent of income: Judge

Acquitting AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa in a corruption case, the Karnataka High Court on Monday said the total value of assets disproportionate to her known sources of income was only Rs.2.82 crore or eight percent.

The Tamil Nadu government had charged Jayalalithaa with amassing around Rs.66 crore of assets disproportionate to her known sources of income for which she was convicted by a lower court in Bengaluru. She had appealed to the Karnataka High Court.

In his judgment acquitting her, Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy calculated the total assets of Jayalalithaa at around Rs.37.59 crore and her total income at around Rs.34.76 crore, and said thus, the disproportionate assets worked out to only around Rs.2.82 crore, or 8.12 percent of the total income.

"It is well-settled law that according to Krishnanand Agnihotri (Krishnanand Aggnihotri vs State of MP) case, when there is disproportionate asset to the extent of 10 percent, the accused are entitled for acquittal," he said in the order.

"A circular has been issued by the government of Andhra Pradesh that disproportionate assets to the extent of 20 percent can also be considered as a permissible limit. The margin of 10 percent to 20 percent of the disproportionate assets has been taken as a permissible limit, taking into consideration the inflatory measures," Justice Kumaraswamy said in the order.

The judge said the prosecution has mixed up assets of accused, firms and companies and also added the cost of construction amounting to Rs.27,79,88,945 and marriage expenses at Rs.6,45,04,222 to value the assets at Rs.66,44,73,573.

"If we remove the exaggerated value of cost of construction and marriage expenses, the assets will work out at Rs.37,59,02,466," Justice Kumaraswamy said.

The total income of the accused, firms and companies is Rs.34,76,65,654 and thus percentage of disproportionate assets is 8.12 percent.

"It is relatively small. In the instant case, the disproportionate asset is less than 10 percent and it is within permissible limit. Therefore, accused are entitled for acquittal," the order stated.

"When the principal accused has been acquitted, the other accused, who have played a lesser role are also entitled for acquittal," Justice Kumaraswamy said.