Sasi moves SC against verdict

AIADMK leader says that she’s not government servant

The AIADMK general secretary Ms. V.K. Sasikala, V.N. Sudhakaran and Ms. Ilavarasi, who were sentenced to undergo four year imprisonment in the `66 crore disproportionate case involving former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa have moved the Supreme Court seeking review of the verdict. All the three are serving sentence in Bengaluru.

On February 14, a Bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Amitav Roy had convicted them by reversing the Karnataka High Court judgment acquitting them in the DA case. As Jayalalithaa had died in 2016, the Bench said the appeal insofar she has concerned has come to an end.

Seeking review of this verdict, Sasikala and two others said as they are not government servants, the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act would not apply to them and that they had been wrongly convicted even after the death of the public servant Jayalalithaa who was the A1 in this case.

They argued that once the main accused had expired the charges against them will not survive independently. They had not amassed wealth as held in the judgment as they were independent I-T assesses and had paid income tax during the relevant period. They wanted the court to have a re-look at the verdict and set them at liberty.

The SC had held that Sasikala and others had hatched one criminal conspiracy after other at Poes Garden to launder the illgotten wealth of Jayalalithaa for purchasing properties in the names of “masked fronts.” It had said that Jayalalithaa did not accommodate Sasikala at Poes Garden out of some “philanthropic urge” but with cold-blooded calculation to keep herself secure from any legal complications, which may arise from their criminal activities.

Coming down heavily on Sasikala and two others, the Bench said the fact that A2 to A4 did combine to constitute the firms to acquire land out of the funds provided by Jayalalithaa.