J Jayalalithaa at the Madras University for her oath taking ceremony on Saturday.
Jayalalithaa may have returned as Tamil Nadu chief minister, but her controversial acquittal has raised questions over whether behind-the-scenes political manouvering, across party lines, came in the way of a fair legal process.
The Congress state government in Karnataka , where the trial was conducted, is under fire for failing to reappoint Special Public Prosecutors (SPP's) to argue against her appeal for acquittal.
We put this to Murugesh Maradi, who assisted the SPP Bhawani Singh during the trial leading up to the conviction.
Maradi , speaking to us from his hometown of Belgaum told us that no government order (GO) was issued by the state government, which is why he had no role in the arguments against the appeal.
Finally only Bhawani Singh was appointed as SPP, but by the Tamil Nadu government. Singh has been accused by the DMK of favouring Jayalalithaa, a charge he denies. Nonetheless, his appointment was ruled as invalid by the Supreme Court, and at the last minute BV Acharya, the original public prosecutor in the case was reinstated.
Acharya had only one day to file his reply.
Karnataka Chief Minster Sidderamaiah denied charges of political 'sabotage'. He told NDTV that Tamil Nadu was the complainant in the case, and it was for them to appoint a special prosecutor for the appeals process.
But the BJP's role too has come under scrutiny.
In his recently released his memoirs, All From Memory, BV Acharya says the BJP-ruled state government in Karnataka used a technical pretext to remove him from the case. At that time (in 2012), Acharya was both the Special Public Prosecutor and Advocate General of Karnataka.
"It appears the BJP high command on pretext that I was holding two posts, directed the state government to pursue me to quit as special public prosecutor", he writes.
Acharya resigned as Advocate General. A few months later, he quit as SPP after a host of charges were filed against him, allegedly at the behest of Jayalalithaa. He was later cleared of those charges.
Acharya's claim is endorsed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. He told NDTV "there are people in my party who have been soft on Jayalalithaa and they think its in the larger interest of the country that Jayalalithaa should be protected so that is a political decision."
"I never make any allegation which are not backed after some study and verification", he said.
The BJP sought to play down these allegations, saying that the verdict from the court must be respected.
AIADMK spokersperson CR Saraswati told NDTV that if "Amma (Jayalalithaa) wanted to come out from this case it would have happened in 2001 itself (when she returned to power). The then opposition party leader SR Balasubramaniam said 'Amma this is a false case, we will put a resolution in the assembly itself'. But she refused, saying the law must take its own course."
The political heat , some say, will make it inevitable for Karnataka file an appeal against the acquittal.
But that may still not yield answers as to whether Jayalalithaa 's return was simply the law taking its own course, or whether it was guided by hidden political hands.