Will Jayalalithaa celebrate Diwali in Jail? SC to take up bail plea on October 17

New Delhi, Oct 13: AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa has to wait longer before her petition will be taken on Friday by the Supreme Court. On Monday, the Apex Court bench, led by Chief Justice of India H. L. Dattu posted the plea for bail in the disproportionate wealth case for October 17. Jayalalithaa, who was denied bail by the Karnataka High Court following her conviction in the case on October 10, had on Thursday moved the Supreme Court for bail.

The AIADMK chief, who has been behind bars for the last 14 days, challenged the High Court order which had refused her bail. Jayalalithaa has pleaded that she has been sentenced to only four years' jail in the case and she is suffering from various ailments, as grounds for her immediate relief.

She said as Chief Minister she did not misuse her powers in this case. The former Chief Minister also cited grounds of being a senior citizen and a woman for getting out of jail.

The 66-year-old veteran politician was denied bail by the High Court on October 7 despite the Special Public Prosecutor not objecting to grant of conditional bail to her.

In her petitions seeking immediate bail, Jayalalithaa maintained that the charge of amassing wealth against her during 1991-96 when she was the Chief Minister for the first time was false and that she had acquired property through legal means.

She also contended that the trial court had overlooked several judgments and not considered the binding nature of various income tax orders and decisions of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which had accepted the income and the level of expenditure pleaded by her.

The High Court judge had said that there "are no grounds" to give bail to Jayalalithaa. Corruption amounts to "violation of human rights" and leads to economic imbalance.

The HC had also rejected the bail pleas by Jayalalithaa's close aide Sasikala and her relatives V N Sudhakaran, disowned foster-son of the former Chief Minister, and Ilavarasi, who have also been sent to four years in jail in the 18-year-old case.

The Special Court had held Jayalalithaa and three others guilty of corruption. The court had also slapped a fine of Rs. 100 crore on the AIADMK chief and Rs 10. crore on each of the three other convicts.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from PTI)