Jaya wealth case verdict on Sept 20

Bangalore, Aug 28: Eighteen years after a wealth case was filed against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and three others, a special court here will deliver its judgement in the matter on September 20.

The court directed all the four accused in the case, including Jayalalithaa, to appear before it on that date. After hearing final arguments of prosecution and defence, Special Court Judge John Michael Cunha today posted the matter to September 20 for pronouncement of judgement in the case in which Jayalalithaa has been charged with accumulating Rs 66 crore wealth disproportionate to known sources of income in 1991-96 in her first term as Chief Minister.

The other three accused in the case, filed by the then DMK Government in 1996, are Jayalalithaa's close confidante Sasikala Natarajan, Sasikala's nephew Sudhakaran and her sister-in-law Ilavarasi. Jayalalithaa had appeared before the court in October 2011 and recorded her answers to questions posed by the Judge.

The AIADMK chief had accused the DMK of foisting false cases against her. The court has also recorded about-400 page written statements presented by DMK counsel. It also recorded statements of about 350 witnesses. The disproportionate assets case was shifted here in 2003 following a Supreme Court directive on a petition by DMK General Secretary K Anbazhagan which contended that a fair trial was not possible in Chennai during Jayalalithaa's second tenure as Chief Minister then.

PTI