Jayalalitha Summoned To Court On June 11

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha was yesterday summoned to appear before a special judge here to face trial on June 11 for allegedly amassing assets worth Rs 66.65 crore during 1991-96.

Special judge S Sambandam took cognizance of a chargesheet filed on Thursday by the directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption and ordered issuance of summons to Jayalalitha and three others.

The three others are Sasikala Natarajan, her disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran, her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi. The four have been charged with conspiring to abuse Jayalalithas office as Chief Minister and acquiring 160 pieces of property, comprising land, building and movable assets like jewellery.

 

As Jayalalitha alone is a public servant among the four accused, state governor Fathima Beevis sanction order to facilitate her prosecution has been obtained and filed along with the chargesheet.

All the four are to be arraigned under Sec 120(B) of IPC for criminal conspiracy, read with Sec 13(1)(E) of the Prevention of Corruption Act for plotting to acquire and possess assets disproportionate to Jayalalithas known

sources of income, and for which she had no satisfactory explanation. The other there are indicted as conspirators and abettors for the main offence.

Official sources said here yesterday that the actual value of the assets might be 10 times more than the estimated Rs 66 crore, as the chargesheet only cited the registration value of the property and not the market value.

The voluminous chargesheet runs to a few hundred pages of narration and is accompanied by 750 documents, including property documents and photographs, and the statements of about 950 witnesses.

Though the detailed break-up of the various heads of property was not yet available, official sources said they included jewellery worth Rs 4.50 crore, the majority of the remaining property being accounted for as immovable assets. The immovable property included palatial buildings on the eastern coast of Chennai, two residential houses in Jayalalithas Poes Garden residence here, a magnificent 17,700 sq ft sea-side villa at Sirudavur, a south-eastern suburb, and an ornate bungalow at Payyanur, another suburb, and over 2000 acres of fertile agriculture land bought at lowly rates like Rs 2,000 an acre.

Significantly, the DVAC has also included the $3 lakh received by Jayalalitha from an undisclosed foreign source under the foreign remittance immunity scheme of the government of India in 1991.

While the CBI is probing the transaction as a separate case, the DVAC considers it part of her unexplained assets, as she has refused to disclose the senders name, saying she was not obliged to do so under the immunity scheme.

The sources said the DVAC would pursue the foreign component of the investigation, based on the unearthing of some suspected coded foreign bank account numbers, after getting the courts permission and through central agencies.

The huge expenditure incurred by Jayalalitha and her foster sons mega-wedding here in September 1995 had been included as part of the assets she possessed as a public servant. Other pieces of property citedinclude a 14.5 acre grape garden at Hyderabad with a bunglow .

valmons form the culmination of a 10-month-long high-profile probe marked by Jayalalithas arrest, and a marathon search at her residence and the premises belonging to her associates, firms and Sasikalas family members throughout the state.

It was initiated by Janata Party president, Subramanian Swamy, whose private complaint seeking to prosecute Jayalaitha was referred by the principal sessions court here to a particular IPS officer. However, the high court modified the order and the DVAC superintendent of police, Nallamma

Naidu, took up the probe.