Jayalalithaa allowed Sasikala to acquire wealth, says SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has come down heavily on the role played by former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa (A1) in the conspiracy to amass wealth disproportionate to known sources of income and strongly indicted her.

The bench of Justices of P.C. Ghose and Amitav Roy while stating that the charges against Jayalalithaa had come to an end after her death, however, said this case demonstrates a “deep-rooted conspiratorial design” to amass vast riches and hold them through shell entities.

It said Jayalalithaa and her three co-accused, including V.K. Sasikala (A2), of hatching one criminal conspiracy after other at Poes Garden to launder the ill-gotten wealth of Jayalalithaa for purchasing huge properties in the names of “masked fronts.”

It said Jayalalithaa did not accommodate Sasikala at Poes Garden out of some “philanthropic urge” but with cold-blooded calculation to keep herself secure from any legal complications, which may arise from their criminal activities.

It accused Jayalalithaa as a mastermind who misused her public office, who “masked banking exchanges”, who acquired “vast tracts of land” for pittances and conspired with her co-accused at Poes Garden only to later “feign ignorance” about any crime committed.

It pointed out how 10 companies were registered on one day at the Poes Garden residence. Holding that all four accused were guilty of criminal conspiracy, it said that Jayalalithaa had executed a General Power of Attorney (GPA) in favour of Sasikala in respect of Jaya Publications. 

This was done, the court said, for Jayalalithaa to maintain a respectable distance from inflow and outflow of money meant for property acquisitions.

The court said Jayalalithaa “knew fully well that Sasikala would be dealing with her funds credited to her account in Jaya Publications”. 

The court pointed out that the next proof of conspiracy was the speed and manner in which firms were created by the accused persons.

The court concluded that these shell entities were mere extensions of Namadhu MGR and Jaya Publications and they owed their existence to Jayalalithaa and Sasikala. All the business they did was buy property for less than the market value. Most of the sale deeds were executed by officials who came to the Poes Garden to register the properties.

Further, the court said there was no use of Jayalalithaa pretending that she was not aware of the activities of Sasikala and the two others in her own residence, Poes Garden. 

“They were residing with A1 without any blood relation among them,” Constitution of firms and acquisition of large tracts of land out of the funds provided by A1 indicate that all the accused congregated at Poes Garden neither for social living nor A1 allowed them free accommodation out of humanitarian concern.

The court said rather facts and circumstances proved in evidence undoubtedly point out that Sasikala, Sudhakaran (A3) and Ilavarasi (A4) were accommodated in the house of A1 pursuant to the criminal conspiracy hatched by then to hold the assets of A1.