Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa with close aide Sasikala Natarajan during an election campaign for by-poll in Chennai (Press Trust of India photo)
J Jayalalithaa, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, was wrongly found innocent in a corruption case, the Karnataka government said today in the Supreme Court, where it has challenged her acquittal, describing it as a "farce."
Ms Jayalalithaa returned to office as Chief Minister in May after she was found not guilty of amassing wealth that could not be accounted for by her declared sources of income during her first term as head of the state government in the early 90s.
The nearly two-decades-old case against the former movie star was transferred from Tamil Nadu to neighbouring Karnataka in 2003 to ensure the trial would not be impacted by the influence of either Ms Jayalalithaa or her political opponents.
In May, the Karnataka High Court found that there was no evidence that while in office, Ms Jayalalithaa had accumulated more than Rs 60 crore that could not be explained by her declared income. At the time, she famously drew Rs 1 as a monthly salary. The judge said that her wealth had increased by about 10 per cent during her first term, which was permissible. In its appeal today, the Karnataka government has said the judge's math was faulty.
The verdict allowed Ms Jayalalithaa to return as Chief Minister eight months after she was forced to resign when a lower court in Bangalore found her guilty in the same case and sentenced her to four years in prison. She is contesting a bye-election in Tamil Nadu later this month to re-enter the Tamil Nadu legislature.
Her three-week incarceration in September in a Karnataka jail plunged thousands of her supporters in mourning. Public buses were set on fire. Nearly 300 people killed themselves in protest, her party, the AIADMK, has said.