Tamil Nadu leadership hopeful jailed for graft

NEW DELHI – India’s Supreme Court convicted a confidante of the late chief minister of Tamil Nadu yesterday in a corruption case that will put her behind bars and effectively end her bid to become chief minister of the southern state.

The court found V K Sasikala guilty in the disproportionate assets case, upholding a four-year jail term handed down by a lower court and banning her from seeking elected office for 10 years.

The verdict delivered a decisive blow against Sasikala, who had emerged from the shadows after three decades as a low-profile adviser to claim the mantle of five-time Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram, who died in December.

There was no immediate reaction from Sasikala, who was not present at the apex court in New Delhi and has been holed up in a resort close to Chennai since last week.

But the verdict brought a shuddering halt to the 59-year-old’s meteoric rise as she was on the cusp of becoming the leader of one of India’s most populous and prosperous states.

The court ordered she immediately hand herself in to begin serving her sentence, which automatically bars her from holding public office for a decade, as well as fining her 100 million rupees (S$2.1 million).

“The magnitude of the nefarious gains as demonstrated by the revelations in the case are, to say the least, startling,” Justice PC Ghosh and Justice A Roy wrote in their verdict.

Sasikala had been anointed as Jayalalithaa’s successor by the state’s dominant All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and was likely to be sworn in later this week.

But she has been involved in a bitter battle with acting chief minister, Mr O Panneerselvam, who has been trying to block her ascent.

After the verdict, her party issued a statement yesterday saying Mr Panneerselvam and 19 other senior AIADMK rebels had been sacked.

Mr Edappady Palaniswamy, a Sasikala loyalist, was appointed AIADMK leader in place of Sasikala, but Mr Panneerselvam is likely to stay on as chief minister while the infighting continues.

“Let us bury the hatchet and stay united for the good of the party and continue the fine governance of Amma,” Mr Panneerselvam told reporters after the verdict, using Jayalalithaa’s nickname.

While the 2014 conviction sparked mass protests, Sasikala does not command anything like the same level of loyalty as Jayalalithaa, and there no immediate signs of demonstrations.

“This verdict shows that individuals in public life should not indulge in corruption,” opposition leader M K Stalin told reporters.

The corruption case dates back to late 1990s when Jayalalithaa and Sasikala were accused of profiting from the chief minister’s office and amassing wealth beyond their income.

They were jointly accused of owning several bungalows, luxury cars, tea estates, eight tons of silver, nearly 30kg of gold and thousands of saris which could be not accounted for.

The court put the overall value of the assets acquired illegally at 660 million rupees. AFP