Ms Jayalalithaa supporters protest against her conviction. (Press Trust of India)
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was sent to the Bangalore Central Jail on Saturday evening after a court found her guilty of corruption. She has been sentenced to four years in prison and has been fined Rs 100 crore.
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Ms Jayalalithaa, who is 66, will have to resign as Chief Minister - she stands disqualified as a legislator. The Supreme Court ruled last year that a convicted law-maker can't continue as MP or MLA and shall be disqualified from office.
She is also now barred by law from contesting elections for the next 10 years - six years after the completion of her sentence - unless today's judgement is reversed by a higher court. She is the first chief minister to be disqualified.
Tamil Nadu is tense as angry supporters of the chief minister and her AIADMK forced shops to close in some parts of the state and burnt effigies of leaders of the rival DMK. Stones were thrown at the Chennai residence of DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
An NDTV team was attacked by AIADMK activists outside Ms Jayalalithaa's residence in Poes Garden, Chennai. Protesters damaged the crew's equipment and the Outdoor Broadcast van outside Ms Jayalalithaa's residence in Poes Garden in Chennai. NDTV's Uma Sudhir reported that the workers targeted the crew deliberately, broke their camera and called women workers who threw stones at the team.
Ms Jayalalithaa flew from Chennai to Bangalore this morning to attend the hearing, which took place in a makeshift court created at the Central Jail on the outskirts of the city.
The case against her is 18 years old and was filed originally by Subramanian Swamy, now a BJP leader. It was pursued by Jayalalithaa's arch rival, the DMK, after it came to power in Tamil Nadu.
The case against Ms Jayalalithaa accuses her of misusing her first term as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1991 to 1996 to collect assets that were vastly disproportionate to her income. She has been convicted along with three close aides, including Sasikala Natarajan, who lives with her. They have been fined Rs 10 crore each.
The prosecution argued that Ms Jayalalithaa took a salary of just one rupee when she was elected Chief Minister, but used her five-year tenure to illicitly gather huge assets that added up to Rs. 66 crores. The alleged illegal wealth includes 2,000 acres of land, 30 kg of gold and 12,000 saris.
Ms Jayalalithaa has denounced the case as political vendetta. She argued that the prosecution undervalued her earlier assets, ignored her income from other sources and exaggerated the value of her property.
In the national election this year, her AIADMK virtually swept the state, winning 37 of 39 Lok Sabha seats. The state votes for its next government in two years.
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