Bengaluru: Jailed former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalitha on Monday filed a criminal revision petition in the Karnataka High Court here, seeking suspension of the four-year jail sentence and bail in the corruption case.
Jayalalitha’s senior counsel B. Kumar filed a set of four applications with the high court registrar for an early hearing, seeking suspension of the sentence, bail for her release, review of the hefty Rs1 billion (Dh59.8 million) fine and stay on conviction, an AIADMK leader told IANS here.
As the high court is on a week-long holiday till October 6, the petitions will be put up before a vacation bench, which will hear only urgent or special cases on Tuesday.
A special court here on Saturday convicted Jayalalitha in the 18-year-old case of amassing wealth disproportionate to her known income and sentenced her to four years in jail.
She was also fined Rs1 billion under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
“If the petition for suspending the sentence is allowed, we hope the bail application will also be considered as we want our party supremo out of jail at the earliest,” the leader said on the condition of anonymity.
One interim petition seeks stay on confiscation of properties seized in 1997 from Jayalalitha’s residence in Chennai by the Enforcement Directorate and now in the custody of the trial court here.
The properties include about 800 kg of silver, 28 kg of gold ornaments, 750 pairs of shoes, 10,500 saris, 91 watches and other valuables.
Along with Jayalalitha, three others were also sentenced to four years in jail in the case although the fine imposed is Rs100 million on each of them.
The three convicted are Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Illavarasi.
Jayalalitha has been disqualified from being a member of the Tamil Nadu assembly and removed from the chief minister’s post on Monday after the trial court submitted a copy of the 900-page judgement to Tamil Nadu Governor K. Rosaiah in Chennai.
