Supreme Court of India has convicted AIADMK chief V K Sasikala’s in disproportionate assets case declining any possibility of her becoming Tamil Nadu chief minister. She will be soon taken into custody for serving out the remaining four years of her sentence. She will also have to pay a fine of Rs 10 crore.
According to the ANI, after the verdict, Sasikala said:
“In the past whenever Amma was in crisis, I also suffered this time also I will take it upon me. ‘Dharma’ will win”,
A Bench of Justices P.C. Ghose and Amitava Roy also set aside the absolution of her two co-accused J. Ilavarasi and V.N. Sudhakaran and restored their conviction in the case. Most importantly, the verdict prohibits Sasikala from becoming a legislator and she can’t be chief minister either.
Supreme court has cleared the road for Mr. Panneerselvam to continue as the Chief Minister and unite the party under his leadership. Sasikala would be disqualified from contesting elections for the next six years as per the Supreme Court judgment.
The legal proceedings in the DA case against Jayalalithaa and Sasikala go back two decades.
The Bengaluru trial court convicted Jayalalithaa on September 27, 2014. Also, The conviction barred her as an MLA requiring her to step down as CM. But on May 11, 2015, she returned as CM after Karnataka HC cleared her.
