Jailed AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa will have to stay in prison for at least six more days as the Vacation Bench of the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday posted for October 7 hearing on her pleas for suspension of the sentence and immediate bail in the Disproportionate Assets case.
The former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has been lodged in the high-security Parappana Agrahara prison. The special Vacation Bench Judge, Justice Rathnakala, refused to oblige Jayalalithaa’s counsel Ram Jethmalani’s plea for immediate suspension of the sentence pending appeal under Section 389 of the Criminal Procedure Code and for her release on bail.
The court witnessed some tense moments in the morning as hundreds of lawyers supporting Jayalalithaa wanted the Bench to take up the case immediately. During the brief hearing, Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Bhavani Singh filed the objections to Jayalalithaa’s pleas and also a memo about his appointment as the SPP in the case.
Singh, who was SPP in the Special Court in the Disproportionate Assets case, had told the court on Tuesday that he had not yet received any official notification appointing him as the SPP for the criminal appeal filed in the High Court.
In her petitions seeking immediate bail and challenging her sentence, Jayalalithaa has maintained that the charges of amassing wealth against her were false and that she had acquired property through legal means.
Jayalalithaa has also contended that the trial court has overlooked several judgements and has not considered the binding nature of various Income Tax orders and decisions of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which had accepted the income and the level of expenditure pleaded by her.
Meanwhile many AIADMK Ministers and party cadres were still waiting in front of the jail hoping to have Amma released. A legislator who did not want to be named told The Pioneer that he would stay put outside the prison till his leader got released. The legislator who was wearing a gold chain with an Amma pendant said he would wait till Amma gets justice.
Even the new Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues spent more than three days in Bangalore waiting to meet Amma. However even on Wednesday Amma refused to meet anyone including some Ministers. According to sources many top Government officials are also camping in front of the jail in makeshift offices in their vehicles.