New Delhi, October 17 – On the 43rd birthday of her party, the AIADMK, the Supreme Court on Friday granted a two-month bail to J Jayalalithaa and also suspended the Karnataka High Court sentence against the former Tamil Nadu chief minister.
“The bail was granted because the Karnataka High Court had not yet decided whether the sentence against Jayalalithaa should be suspended,” senior lawyer and petitioner in the case, Subramanian Swamy, told reporters at the Supreme Court, adding that the AIADMK chief has been asked to remain confined to her residence during the bail.
The bail to Jayalalithaa, granted on the day the ruling party in Tamil Nadu celebrates its 43rd Foundation Day, was received by spirited celebrations by party workers across the state.
A trial court in Bangalore on September 27 had convicted Jayalalithaa in the 18-year-old case for possessing assets worth over Rs.66 crore disproportionate to her known sources of income during her first tenure as chief minister from 1991 to 1996.
The former Tamil Nadu chief minister has been in a Bangalore prison for almost two weeks after she was sentenced to four years in jail and fined Rs.100 crore last month.
Jayalalithaa had moved the apex court on October 9 after the Karnataka High Court on October 7 turned down her bail plea as well as of other convicts Sasikala Natrajan, VK Sudhakaran and J Ilavarasi. The court held that there were no grounds for granting them bail.
Besides health grounds, the 66-year-old leader had invoked Section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking the suspension of her sentence and grant of bail till the pendency of her appeal against the trial court order convicting and sentencing her in the case.
The high court had relied on apex court orders as it ruled that putting the sentence on hold after an appeal is filed against the trial court order was not automatic. It said the plea for bail after the conviction was different from the plea for bail while the trial was on.
It also cited the apex court ruling that “corruption amounts to violation of human rights and leads to economic imbalances”.
On the 43rd birthday of her party, the AIADMK, the Supreme Court granted bail to former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa who has been in a Bangalore prison for almost two weeks after she was convicted in a corruption case and sentenced to four years in jail last month.
A trial court in Bangalore on September 27 convicted Jayalalithaa in the 18-year-old case for possessing assets worth over Rs.66 crore disproportionate to her known sources of income during her first tenure as chief minister from 1991 to 1996.
– INDIA TODAY
