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Jayalalitha, Sasikala get three years RI in Tansi case

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha, her close aide Sasikala Natarajan and four others were Monday convicted and sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment in the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation land deal case by a special judge in Madras.

Special judge-3, P Anbazhagan, who delivered the judgement, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on all the six accused, the others being former Rural Industries Minister Mohammed Asif, then TANSI chairman and managing director T R Srinivasan, a stamp duty official, S Nagarajan and then additional secretary to the then Chief Minister, R Karpoorasundara Pandian.

In another case, involving a similar purchase by another firm, Sasi Enterprises, five of them were sentenced to two years' RI, but Asif was acquitted. They were also fined Rs 5,000 each.

However, the judge suspended the operation of his judgement till November 7 to enable Jayalalitha and others to appeal before Madras High Court against the judgement.

The judge held that the prosecution had proved the guilt of the accused for offences under section 120-b (criminal consipracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The prosecution case was that the state government-owned prime Tansi land at Guindy was purchased by Jaya Publications and Sasi Enterprises, in which Jayalalitha and Sasikala were partners, at a price far below the guideline value, resulting in a loss of about Rs 41.6 million to the government.

The three-year sentence has grave political implications for Jayalalitha, as Sec 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act says 'any person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment of not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release'.

The Election Commission has, in recent years, enforced this provision by mandating all prospective candidates to sign a declaration that they had not been convicted for any offence, while filing their nomination papers.

Fifty prosecution witnesses and 12 defence witnesses were examined in the case.

The chargesheet in the case was filed on November 15, 1996 and the charges were framed on June 10, 1999.

Justice S Thangaraj of the Madras High Court had on January 13 last discharged Jayalalitha from the case. But on a special leave petition filed by the state government, the Supreme Court had erased the high court order and directed Jayalalitha to face trial in the case.

Of the 47 cases registered against Jayalalitha, some of her erstwhile cabinet collegues and some IAS and IPS officials, this is the 12th case in which judgement was delivered by the special judges. Of the 11 cases in which verdict was delivered earlier, two cases ended in acquittal. IPS offficial N Hariharan was acquitted in the fire tender scam case, while former minister M Sathiamoorthy was acquitted in the disproportionate wealth case.

Former ministers Nagoor Meeran, E Madhusoodanan, E Ponnusamy, Sedapatti R Muthiah, T M Selvaganapathy and K A Sengottaiyan, IAS official N Haribhaskar and former MLA G Malliga were convicted in different cases.

Of the six cases registered against Jayalalitha, this is the third case in which judgement is pronounced. She was acquitted in the Rs 101.6 million colour television sets scam case while she was convicted and sentenced to undergo one year RI in the Pleasant Stay Hotel case.

In the multi-million coal import deal case, she was discharged by the trial court and confirmed by the high court. But on a special leave petition filed by the state government, the Supreme Court held that the trial court ought not to have discharged her at the premature stage and directed her to face trial.

In the Rs 666.5 million disproportionate wealth case, the trial is in progress.

In the Rs 282.9 million SPIC disinvestment case, the chargesheet was filed and the case is pending before special judge-1, A C Arumughaperumal Adityan.

UNI

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