Jayalalithaa and aides seek bail, suspension of sentence

Bengaluru: Two days after they were convicted in a disproportionate assets case and housed in the Central Prison in Parappana Agrahara, former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and three of her close aides moved the Karnataka high court on Monday, seeking bail and suspension of sentence against them.

The special court on Saturday sentenced them to four years imprisonment and imposed fines of '100 crore on Ms Jayalalithaa and '10 crore each on the three other convicts – Ms Sasikala Natarajan, Ms Elavarasi and Mr V. Sudhakaran.

The case has been listed before the vacation bench of the high court for hearing on Tuesday.

Ms Jayalalithaa has attached her income tax and other details with the appeal, stating that the income tax department had not objected to her earnings, while the special court found her guilty of accruing assets disproportionate to her known sources of income.

Senior Supreme Court advocate Ram Jethmalani is likely to represent Ms Jayalalithaa in the high court.

Her appeal states that 594 witnesses were listed in the case, but 251 appeared before the court for the first time.  

When called again, only 222 witnesses appeared.

 Though 200 witnesses went against the prosecution, the judge did not consider their statements as they were government servants.