Special prosecutor cries foul over Jayalalithaa verdict

Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) B.V. Acharya on Monday expressed reservation over the acquittal of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in the 18-year-old disproportionate assets' case by the Karnataka High Court without considering his submission.

"I expected the high court to conform to the trial court judgement, which had convicted Jayalalithaa. I am not disappointed but this (verdict) was unexpected though I was always prepared to take any judgement," Acharya told IANS here.

Special bench judge Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy earlier in the day dropped all the charges on which a lower court on September 27, 2014 convicted and sentenced 67-year-old Jayalalitha and fined her Rs.100 crore.

"We have not been given opportunity (by the special bench) to put forth oral arguments, which is prejudicial to the prosecution. The Supreme Court gave us just a day to make our submission, which was not sufficient. Prime facie, I feel it (the case) should go to the Supreme Court," Acharya said.

In an 18-page submission to the special bench on April 28, Acharya sought the dismissal of Jayalalithaa's appeal against her conviction on the ground that she and her three co-convicts did not have any other source of income and their bank transactions point to illegally gained wealth after she became chief minister for the first time in 1991.

The three co-convicts are Sasikala Natarajan, her nephew V.N. Sudhakaran and her aunt J. Ellavarsi. Sudhakaran is also the disowned foster son of Jayalalithaa.

The Karnataka government appointed Acharya, a former state advocate general, as its prosecutor on April 28, on the Supreme Court's direction on April 27 in place of Tamil Nadu government's appointed prosecutor Bhavani Singh, to argue in the case, as the latter's (Singh's) appointment was "bad in law".

"I will first go through the voluminous (919 pages) judgement and then make my observations to the state government. We have option of going to the Supreme Court under Article 236 of the Constitution," Acharya added.