Illegal Assets: Bangalore Court Removes Jayalalithaa as CM of Tamil Nadu
-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal

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Jayalalithaa has gone back to jail. Of course Tamil Nadu will lose nothing by disowning and discarding a leader who betrayed Tamil state and looted the Tamil resources for her own sake while she is on oath to serve the people of Tamilnadu by all means.

 Jayalalithaa has been deliberately insensitive to public complaints about  properties stolen by criminals and police apathy and atrocities. 

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Indian politicians, bureaucrats, among others, boldly engage themselves in bribery and other types of corruption operations because they are damn sure they are safe under a corrupt regime promoting corruption as part of so-called development. .

Very rarely that a political leader gets punishment in India but by and large the corrupt system  Nehru  gave birth to still continues without any problems and serious threats and politicians, various mafias and corperates  and bureaucrats thrive. Punishments are given only to select leaders for their extra fittings.

Tamil Nadu’s DMK party leader Karunanidhi and ADMK leader Jayalalithaa have been caught by law in their corrupt operations and have spent time in jails.

Jayalalithaa has been convicted again in multi crore illegal assets case in Bangalore court. In a major setback for Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, a special session court in Bangalore convicted her and three others accused in Rs.66.65-crore disproportionate assets case giving the AIDMK leader a four-year jail term.

Today on 27th September Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was convicted under prevention of corruption act by a special court in Bangalore. Special Judge John Michael D’Cunha convicted the 66-year-old AIADMK Chief in a case of owning assets disproportionate to her known sources of income during 1991-96 when she was chief minister for the first time. The verdict was delivered at a makeshit court in the Parappana Agrahara prison complex in the presence of Jayalalithaa and the other accused. Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala Natarajan, her niece Ilavarasi and her nephew and the chief minister’s disowned foster son Sudhakaran are also convicted.

After an 18-year court battle, special Judge John Michael Cunha John Michael Cunha convicted 66-year old Jayalalithaa, who is general secretary of the AIADMK. He held Jayalalithaa and three others – Sasikala and her relatives V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Illavarasi guilty. Sasikala is the close aide of Jayalalithaa. Pronouncing the order, the special Judge held Jayalalithaa guilty of amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of her income under Sections 109 and 120 (b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, said Special Public Prosecutor G. Bhavani Singh. Her aide Sasikala and two others have also been convicted.

Jayalalithaa slapped with Rs.100-crore fine. Jayalalithaa stepped down as Chief Minister. Automatically, Jaya gets disqualified for six years. Jayalalithaa, 66, will now lose MLA’s post and will have to step down as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, while she stands disqualified from public office for next 6 years.  She is likely to appoint a loyal party man as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

This is the second time that Jayaalithaa has been convicted. Earlier, when the court disqualified her to continue as chief minister of Tamilnadu she  handpicked her most loyal minister O Pannir Selvam who was then a junior in the cabinet who upon assuming power at  Madras Fort he never took a   decision without consulting Jayalalithaa- in fact,  he did exactly what jayaalaithaa asked him.  There were occasions when CM Pannirselvam left meetings in order to get orders from the Poes Garden, Jayalalithaa residence in Chennai. .

Security has been beefed-up at the DMK headquarters and residences of its senior leaders. On a request from DMK, security had been increased at “Anna Arivalayam”, the headquarters of DMK, two residences of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M Karunanidhi and the residence of K Anbazhagan, party’s General Secretary, police said. It was on Anbazhagan’s petition that the case had been transferred to Bangalore by the Supreme Court

The verdict made the AIADMK party people angry. Clashes broke out in Tamilnadu. News channels blocked, electricity cut, stones pelted minutes before the Jayalalithaa verdict announced. Protest against Subramanian Swamy in Chennai ​ Buses burnt near Ambattur, Kancheepuram, several injured. Jayalalithaa goes to Bangalore jail. However, the next day, bus services, suspended in many parts of the state, were being resumed in a phased manner though operations to Bangalore were still not being taken up.

Rallying behind beleaguered AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, the party leaders and   two of her allies said the Bangalore special court verdict convicting her in the disproportionate assets case was not final and expressed hope that she would emerge victorious. Meanwhile, scores of AIADMK workers held a "hunger strike" at several locations in the state protesting the verdict.

AIADMK MLAs are likely to meet here today to propose a candidate for the Chief Minister's post. Party sources said the meeting is likely to be held later in the day and all the legislators have been asked to be present. Majority of the ministers of the Jayalalithaa ministry and MLAs had been in Bangalore since yesterday to know the outcome of the Special Court verdict.

Some of the names of Jayalalithaa's cabinet ministers including O Panneerselvam, Natham Viswanathan and V Senthil Balaji besides former Chief Secretary and Advisor to Tamil Nadu government, Sheela Balakrishnan are doing the rounds for the top post. However, Jayalalithaa could still spring a surprise by possibly nominating a more not-so-known face.

Hoping for a major setback to the ruling party, opposition parties including DMK, Vaiko’s MDMK and Ramadoss’s PMK have been loud enough to reveal their changing stands. DMK and some other Dravidian parties like DMDK of actor Vijayakanth are making efforts to unite against AIADMK. While the whole state is abuzz with predictions on verdict, Jayalalithaa’s followers are not worried. Prior to the judgment, hundreds of AIADMK leaders from different districts have already made a beeline to Bangalore.

The asset case was filed by Subramanian Swamy in 1996 accusing Jayalalithaa of amassing properties worth Rs 66 crore during her tenure as the Chief Minister from 1991 to 1996. Earlier, she was arrested and jailed for some days after DMK came to power in the 1996 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.

In perhaps one of the longest legal battles involving a political leader ever since the case was filed, the country has witnessed five Lok Sabha elections and Tamil Nadu three Assembly polls.

The verdict, which was scheduled for September 20, was deferred to September 27 as the Karnataka High Court had to issue a notification regarding shifting of the court to facilitate Bangalore police to make security arrangements for the Chief Minister. Jayalalithaa on September 15 had filed a petition before the Special Court judge seeking security cover.

Platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police, the city Armed Reserve and the Rapid Action Force were stationed near the court, besides hundreds of police personnel, including those in plain clothes. Keeping all options open, an exclusive helipad has also been built within the prison complex in case Jayalalithaa, who enjoys ‘Z Plus’ security cover, decides to fly down there.

Amid palpable tension, the 65-year-old AIADMK chief set out from her Poes Garden residence in Chennai in the morning towards the airport along with her close aide Sasikala Natarajan, another accused in the case, besides Ilavarasi and flew to Bangalore in a special aircraft, hoping to return with a win in the court. .

Now Jayalalithaa ceases to be MLA and CM. Jaya was taken to a special jail kept ready in Bangalore in same night.

The big question now is who will head the government in the absence of Jayalalithaa. Again this is not the first time such a question has cropped up. In 2001, Jayalalithaa had to step down as a chief minister following a Supreme Court verdict which held that she cannot hold the office after being convicted for criminal offences. However, she made O. Panneerselvam, a minister in her government, as the chief minister.

Life

Born in Mysore on Feb 2, 1948, Jayalalithaa moved to Chennai with her mother, who started acting in movies. Jayalalithaa studied at the Bishop Cotton Girl’s High School in Bangalore and another Christian convent, Church Park, in Chennai. A bright student, Jayalalithaa ventured into acting and made her debut at the age of 16 in a Kannada movie. Her first Tamil movie was the memorable “Vennira Aadai”. But it was the grand success of “Aayirathil Oruvan” pairing with the legendary M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) that turned Jayalalithaa into a leading light of Tamil movie world.  She has paired with almost all the leading Tamil heroes. She has acted in over 100 movies, mostly in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. However, her  movie hero MGR  is responsible for her phenomenal rise in Tamil politics, becoming CM of Tamilnadu where   fanatics, like elsewhere in the country, talk about “outsider interference”.

In fact,  her mentor MGR himself was a Malayalee and he had faced criticism form DMK  for  making  big show in Tamilnadu But he became the first ever  film star turned CM in the world and also became Bharatratna – a post offered by the ruling party  to its favoured persons  who have helped the party.

A charismatic leader who is at home in Tamil, English and Hindi (a rare quality in Tamil Nadu politics), Jayalalithaa has also sung many songs and written several stories. But when she entered politics, few could have predicted her meteoric rise. AIADMK founder-leader MGR made Jayalalithaa the party’s propaganda secretary in the early 1980s. In 1984, she entered the Rajya Sabha.

Jayalalithaa, who chose never to marry, was elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly for the first time in 1989. Just two years later, she became the chief minister, sweeping the election of 1991 held in the wake of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. She lost her huge mandate within five years amid corruption charges

During her first tenure (1991-1996) as the chief minister, Jayalalithaa had announced that she would take just Re.1 as her salary.  The charge against her was that her asset was around Rs.3 crore in 1991 and had grown to around Rs.66 crore between 1991-1996.

Illegality

The AIADMK was voted out in 1996 as it was perceived to be corrupt. Incidentally, DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy lost his Rajya Sabha seat this year after he was convicted in the cremation shed case by a CBI court. He was the local administration minister in Jayalalithaa’s government when the scam broke. He later switched sides to the DMK.

The court had directed Jayalalithaa and three other accused to be present before it. Appearing before the court four times, Jayalalithaa has answered 1,339 questions in closed door hearings during which she has maintained that the case was “politically motivated” and “fabricated” at the instance of her rival DMK.

This is not the first time in her political career that Jayalalithaa has been convicted by a court. In 2000, a trial court sentenced Jayalalithaa for three years and two years imprisonment in two cases. 

The case, registered by the Tamil Nadu directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption in 1997, states that Jayalalithaa and her three associates – her former close friend V K Sasikala, Sasikala’s nephew V N Sudhakaran and sister-in-law J Illavarasi – have acquired Rs 66.65 crore worth of assets by corrupt means between 1991-96 during Jayalalithaa’s first tenure as CM.

The disproportionate assets case filed in 1996 by the then DMK government led by M. Karunanidhi saw several twists and turns during its course. When the AIADMK returned to power in 2001 several witnesses turned hostile. On a petition filed by DMK leader K. Anbazhagan in the apex court, the case was transferred to Bangalore from Chennai.  Since then, the case meandered, with several petitions filed by the defence and several adjournments. Over 255 prosecution witnesses and over 95 defence witnesses have been heard in the case. Jayalalithaa was also summoned by the trial court in 2011 and answered over 1,300 questions posed to her by the judge.

In 2002, Jayalalithaa again became the chief minister after being acquitted by the Madras High Court. She was later elected from Andipatti constituency. AIADMK leaders do not rule out re-run of such an arrangement. Friends and foes are in awe of Jayalalithaa, who is the tallest Brahmin politician in a state where anti-Brahminism is a part of political discourse. Even her critics admit that Jayalalithaa is a fighter and has an iron grip over her party.

The case filed at Madras High Court, was transferred to the Bangalore Special Court by the Supreme Court in 2003 on a plea by DMK, which claimed a fair trial cannot be held in Chennai as the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK government was in power. As the case moved, it has faced several twists and turns following the filing of associated cases and petitions. Moreover, the Special Court itself has witnessed five judges presiding over the case – AS Pachapure, AT Munoli, BM Mallikarjunaiah, MS Balakrishna and finally John Michael D’Cunha.

With her Z Plus security cover, Bangalore police is reportedly deploying over 6,000 security personnel besides coordinating with the Tamil Nadu police for security arrangements.

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who had filed a petition in 1996 against her, said Jayalalithaa, who had the best lawyers, “should know corruption doesn’t pay”. “The judge is very upright. We are fighting against corruption,” he said. CPI leader D. Raja said though that there was no immediate threat to the government, it has to be seen who is going to be nominated the next leader. Organisation Secretary of DMK T.K.S. Elangovan said “justice was delayed, not denied”.

Earlier, there was media blackout in many parts of Tamil Nadu, while there was a power cut in many parts of Chennai.

As the charges were being read against all the accused, unprecedented security was put up around the DMK ministers’ residences in Chennai. Jayalalithaa’s supporters burnt the posters of DMK leaders and Swamy. The Tamil Nadu chief minister had filed two more defamation cases against Swamy for his comments ridiculing her. Reports said her supporters clashed with cops even as they were shown distributing sweets in anticipation of a win in the favour of their leader.

The Bangalore city police have promulgated prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC as a precautionary measure ahead of the court delivering its verdict. Police have also installed CCTV cameras at vantage points in the area to check movement of people and vehicles towards the jail.

Lesson

The judgment against Jayalalithaa was delivered in Karnataka state where she was born. Jayalalithaa quit the Chief Minister’s post. Jayalalithaa had faced a similar situation in 2001, during her second tenure as the Chief Minister, when Supreme Court ordered that she could not hold the post as she was found guilty of some criminal offences including TANSI case, in which she allegedly obtained property belonging to the state-owned agency.

It could be creating history in the annals of Tamil Nadu politics. It denotes an end of a saga; of an almost 18-year long legal battle of the actor-turned-politician Jayalalithaa. If Saturday’s judgment is going to be crucial to Tamil Nadu politics as per experts’ predictions, it could totally alter the political equations in the state. It will also decide the very fate of AIADMK in the next assembly election.

The guilty must be punished, and Jaya’s corrupt practices should serve as a lesson for all corrupt politicians of India. She must realize that she now shares a prison asset in Bangalore along with Muslim leader from Kerala Abdul Nasser Madani whom her police had picked up from his home state, naming him a terrorist for trying to defend the Muslims of Kerala from Hindutva/RSS forces, while the judiciary found him innocent after nearly 10 years of police torture in jails, including Coimbatore jailing Jayalalithaa’s tenure. Now Karnataka Congress government has once again put him in a Bangalore jail, just for sustaining the Hindu votes. 

While Jayalalithaa, who was all set to become premier of India but could not because BJP won landslide, is undergoing punishment for her illegal assets and corruption cases, Madani is the victim of conspiracy by Indian state