Sasikala convicted, ordered to be taken into custody

She now cannot contest polls for the next 10 years

In a major blow to AIADMK interim general secretary Sasikala Natarajan, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered her to go back to jail. A Division Bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy upheld the trial court's verdict which had sentenced Jayalalithaa, Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran.

• The case against Jayalalithaa however stood abated since she is deceased. They have also been fined Rs 10 crore each.
• After hearing the verdict, Sasikala, who has been waiting for the MLAs at the Golden Bay resort near Chennai, broke down.

• The court directed that Sasikala be taken into custody for serving the remainder of the 3.6-year sentence, as she has already served 6 months in jail.
• She cannot now contest elections for the next 10 years. The two judges delivered separate verdicts in which they concurred that this is a case that reflected rising corruption in society.
• Justice P C Ghose who authored a major part of the verdict running into over 1,000 pages termed it as a 'fatty judgment'.

'Mighty cannot escape the law'

Karnataka's Special Public Prosecutor, B V Acharya while welcoming the verdict said that the high and mighty cannot escape the law. The disproportionate assets case has been on for the past two decades. It was marked by controversy and twists and turns. The trial court in Bengaluru had convicted Jayalalithaa, Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran. The court had sentenced them to four years in jail and ordered a fine of Rs 100 crore each.

The Karnataka high court however overturned the verdict while acquitting all four. Karnataka then preferred an appeal in the Supreme Court. After hearing arguments at length, the SC had reserved orders in June 2016.

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