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Jayalalitha discharged in Tansi land deal and coal import cases

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

In what is being described as the best Pongal gift she may have had in years, the Madras high court today discharged former Tamil Nadu chief minister and All India Anna DMK supremo J Jayalalitha in the Tansi land deal case. Simultaneously, Justice K Thangaraj upheld a special court order discharging her in the coal import deal case.

"No prima facie case existed for the special court to frame charges against Jayalalitha in the Tansi land deal case," Justice Thangaraj observed, upholding her appeal against Special Court Judge V Radhakrishnan framing charges against her.

While the state government is expected to appeal against the verdict, the prosecution has been taken aback by the judgment. The prosecution, as also the political powers in Tamil Nadu, had laid great hopes on these two cases. The Pleasant Stay Hotel case, in which the trial court has reserved orders, is their last hope now.

"We don't know where we went wrong," said a government advocate handling the case. "But we are going in for an appeal," he added.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and Law Minister Aladi Aruna went into a huddle with senior law department officials as soon as the judgment was pronounced.

AIADMK leaders and cadres, naturally, are jubilant. ''Amma has been proved right,'' declared a senior AIADMK leader. ''She had always held that these were politically-motivated cases and that she would come clean,'' he added.

''The AIADMK is bound to make political capital of the judgment, and we will look like fools," conceded a senior DMK minister. He said the judgment had come as a shock because "various lawyers that we consulted, both inside and outside the government, had described these as open-and-shut cases."

The Tansi land deal case, brought into the public glare by Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy, revolved around Jayalalitha's buying property owned by the state-run Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation, while she was chief minister, in the name of Jaya Publications, of which she was a partner. Apart from the impropriety of the deal, the prosecution had alleged that the property had been under-valued, thus denying the state the stamp duty that was due.

"We thought the records spoke for themselves," said an investigating officer associated with the case.

Lawyers also speak of the application of the prima facie yardstick to cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act. "Various sections within the PCA pre-suppose guilt on the part of the accused. Thus, it is for the accused to prove that s/he is not guilty," said a senior high court advocate.

The PCA in the case of a public servant, he said, expects the accused to prove that her/his sources of income are legitimate. ''This was made possible through an amendment. The earlier law provided for the prosecution to prove that the wealth in the ownership of the accused was acquired through corrupt means. Now, it is enough for the prosecution to prove that the property was acquired by the accused, or relatives or friends close to them, at a time s/he was a public servant, and was not proportionate to her/his known sources of income. Thus, the prima facie theory should favour the prosecution, not the accused."

According to an investigating official, the verdict will have its impact on other pending cases under the Act.

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