Chennai: Two major opposition parties in Tamil Nadu — the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Pattali Makkal Katchi — on Tuesday urged the Karnataka government to launch an appeal against the Karnataka High Court verdict acquitting former chief minister Jayalalitha in the disproportionate assets case.
The two parties claimed that there were arithmetical errors in the calculations of the High Court.
In a statement here, DMK president M. Karunanidhi said Karnataka High Court Justice C.R. Krishnaswamy in his verdict has said Jayalalitha did not have assets worth around Rs660 million (Dh37.64 million) and overruled the trial court’s order.
Karunanidhi said listing out the borrowings from Indian Bank by Jayalalitha and others, the judge had arrived at a total of Rs241 million.
“Anybody who knows addition would tell the total would be only Rs106,731,274. But the judge had totalled it as Rs241,731,274 and said that it was wrong to file a case against Jayalalitha for disproportionate assets of Rs66 crore [Rs660 million],” Karunanidhi said.
The difference between these two figures is around Rs135 million.
Similarly, the judge has reduced the amount spent on the wedding of Sudhakaran and value of Jayalalitha’s house at Poes Garden without explaining the rationale for that, Karunanidhi said.
The judge in his order said the prosecution has mixed up assets of accused, firms and companies and also added the cost of construction amounting to Rs277,988,945 and marriage expenses at Rs64,504,222 to value the assets at Rs664,473,573.
“If we remove the exaggerated value of cost of construction and marriage expenses, the assets will work out at Rs375,902,466,” Justice Kumaraswamy said.
The total income of the accused, firms and companies is Rs347,665,654 and thus percentage of disproportionate assets is 8.12 per cent.
“It is relatively small. In the instant case, the disproportionate asset is less than 10 per cent and it is within permissible limit. Therefore, accused are entitled for acquittal,” the order stated.
“When the principal accused has been acquitted, the other accused, who have played a lesser role are also entitled for acquittal,” Justice Kumaraswamy said.
PMK’s Ramadoss said as per the high court’s order, a sum of Rs135 million has been wrongly added to Jayalalitha’s income.
He said if this sum is deducted from Jayalalitha’s income then her total income would be Rs212,665,654.
According to Ramadoss going by the High Court’s order, Jayalalitha’s assets are valued at Rs375,902,466.
The difference between the value of assets and her total income works out to Rs163,236,812, which is 76.75 per cent higher than Jayalalitha’s income, Ramadoss said.
He added that Jayalalitha and her associates could not be acquitted even under criterion in the Krishnanand Agnihotri (Krishnanand Aggnihotri vs State of MP) case, where it was held that if there is disproportionate asset to the extent of 10 per cent, the accused are entitled for acquittal.
Neither could Jayalalitha and her associates be released under the Andhra Pradesh government circular that states that disproportionate assets to the extent of 20 per cent can also be considered as a permissible limit, Ramadoss said.
Hence Karuanidhi and Ramadoss have urged the Karnataka government to go in appeal in the Supreme Court against the high court judgement.
A DMK leader said on the condition of anonymity that the party is also exploring legal options.
DMK general secretary K. Anbazhagan is one of the petitioners in the case against Jayalalitha.
