New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced final hearing on various appeals including the one filed by Karnataka against the acquittal of AIADMK Chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and others in a disproportionate assets case.
A bench, comprising justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy, asked senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Karnataka government, to start arguments in the matter.
The Karnataka government is arguing the case as the trial was shifted from Tamil Nadu and a Bangalore court had convicted the accused including Jayalalithaa who had succeeded in her challenge before the High Court there.
Opening his arguments, Dave said there were glaring mistakes in the order of the Karnataka High Court acquitting Jayalalithaa and others which needed to be set aside.
"There are glaring mistakes in the order of the Karnataka High Court acquitting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, which has to be set aside. The trial court has given a very reasoned order holding them guilty and needs to be upheld," Dave said.
He said the approach of the High Court was "very casual and troublesome" and would defeat the very motive of Prevention of Corruption Act (PC ACT).
Besides Jayalalithaa, others accquited by the High Court were her close aide Sasikala and her two relatives, V N Sudhakaran and Elavarasi.
Dave said Jayalalithaa was Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from June 24, 1991 to May 13, 1996 and Sasikala and her two relatives had acted in conspiracy to amass huge wealth of Rs 53.60 crore disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Dave said Sudhakaran had moved to Jayalalithaa's house in 1992 and was her foster son and his marriage was termed as a marriage of the century.
The bench, however, said "you must stick to the merit of the case and we are not concerned whether its marriage of the century or not. It is none of our concern," the bench said.
Dave continued with the arguments and said, "Case of the prosecution is that they all conspired together to properly utilise the disproportionate assets acquired by Jayalalithaa through a web of companies and firms."
