The Madras High Court today sentenced former AIADMK minister V Sathyamoothy to five years' rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate wealth case, setting aside a lower court order which had acquitted him.
Sathyamoorthy was minister for commercial taxes between 1993 and 1996 during J Jayalalithaa's first tenure as chief minister.
Justice G Jayachandran also sentenced Sathyamoorthy's wife to two years RI in the case and directed them to pay Rs 5 lakh each as fine, in default of which they would have to each undergo one-year simple imprisonment.
The judge was allowing an appeal by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption, challenging the lower court order, which had acquitted the two in August 2000.
The judge said "Unfortunately, the trial court has projected whimsical reasons to discredit the prosecution witnesses. The trial court had invented a view which is totally impossible and perverse, based on the imagination and conjunctions for the sake of acquittal of the accused."
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