Jayalalithaa Convicted of Corruption by Bangalore Court
Edited by Sanchari Bhattacharya | Updated: Sep 27, 2014 14:33 IST
Bangalore:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has been found guilty of corruption by a Bangalore court. She is present in court and will be sentenced later today.
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Jayalalithaa, who is 66, will have to resign as Chief Minister. She has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy.
The case against her is 18 years old and was filed by her arch rival, the DMK, headed by M Karunanidhi.
Hundreds of her supporters were waiting outside the court in Bangalore; security has been increased at the offices of the DMK in Chennai and at the homes of its top leaders.
The case against her accuses her of misusing her first term as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1991 to 1996 to collect assets that were vastly disproportionate to her income.
The prosecution has argued that Jayalalithaa had just Rs. 3 crore when she became the Chief Minister 1991 and took a salary of just one rupee, but in her five-year tenure, her wealth and that of three others who lived with her shot up to Rs. 66 crore, without any known business activity.
The alleged illegal wealth includes 2,000 acres of land, 30 kg of gold and 12,000 saris.
Ms Jayalalithaa has denounced the case as political vendetta. She argued that the prosecution undervalued her earlier assets, ignored her income from other sources and exaggerated the value of her property.
In the national election this year, her AIADMK virtually swept the state, winning 37 of 39 Lok Sabha seats. The state votes for its next government in two years.
The case against her was shifted to a Bangalore court in 2001 when Jayalalithaa returned to power for the second time in 2001. A DMK leader argued that a trial in Tamil Nadu could not be unbiased while her party, the AIADMK, was governing the state.
In 2011, Ms Jayalalithaa, a former film star, had attended the Bangalore court to answer over 1,300 questions asked by a judge over four days.
Story first published: Sep 27, 2014 14:28 IST
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