Sasikala convicted in disproportionate assets case: Here's all that we know so far

Chennai: The Supreme Court on Tuesday convicted AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala in the disproportionate assets case and sentenced her to a 4-year jail term, shattering her dream to become the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Here's all you need to know about VK Sasikala's DA case.

-Sasikala has been found guilty of corruption by the Supreme Court and will have to surrender to the police in Chennai so that she can be jailed for four years. 

-The SC ruling implies that Sasikala is now barred from contesting an election for the next ten years.

-The verdict was delivered by two-judge SC bench at 10.30 am.

-The judges of the Supreme Court delivered their ruling separately, but agreed that Sasikala had, in the early 90s, accumulated an illicit fortune. The case was originally pivoted on J Jayalalithaa, the four-term Chief Minister who Sasikala lived with, but because she died in December, the judgement does not detail her role.

-The case was premised on the fact that during her first term, Jayalalithaa misused her office to accrue 60 cores of assets in a shared fortune with Sasikala and her male relatives, who were later disowned by Amma.

-As the verdict was delivered, Sasikaka was at a resort on the outskirts of Chennai, where about 120  legislators from her party, the ruling AIADMK, have been stationed for a week to prevent them from switching allegiance to her rival, O Panneerselvam, who took over as Chief Minister after the death of Jayalalithaa, who was his mentor. 

-OPS, as he is known, had refused party orders to facilitate the promotion of Sasikala to the state's top job.  Instead, like her, he petitioned Governor C Vidyasagar Rao for the right to take a trust vote in the legislature to prove he is the rightful head of government.

-The case dates back to 1996. 

-J Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and two of her relatives - Ilavarasi and Sudhagaran - had earlier been convicted in the case that alleged that the former Chief Minister owned assets far exceeding her known sources of income. 

-After they were acquitted in 2015, an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court, the verdict of which is was delivered today. Since Jayalalithaa died in December, the court did not pass orders against her. 

-Sasikala was accused of abetment and criminal conspiracy in the matter. 

-The trial had been shifted from Tamil Nadu to Karnataka following concerns about undue influence, since Jayalalithaa was still the Chief Minister. In September 2014, all four were sentenced to a 4-year-jail term and a fine of Rs. 100 crore by a special court in Bengaluru.

-In May 2015, the Karnataka High reversed the verdict and acquitted them all. The court had held that the charges against them was not sustainable. After the special court verdict, Jayalalithaa had stepped down as Chief Minister. The High Court's verdict cleared the decks for her return as the Chief Minister.

-Soon after, the Karnataka government, DMK leader K Anbazhagan and BJP's Subramanian Swamy had challenged their acquittal in the Supreme Court.

-The Karnataka government had argued that if the ruling of the high court was not set aside, the Prevention of Corruption Act will fail to stop corruption among politicians and public servants and that will send a wrong signal.

-The state had also said that there were mathematical errors in calculating the assets by the High Court, which acquitted Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.

-In her response, Jayalalithaa had claimed that there was no "mathematical error". She said all her income between 1991 and 1996 were through lawful sources.

-After hearing the arguments till June, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict.