Jayalalithaa to seek bail from Karnataka High Court

Bangalore, Sep 28 :

Jailed AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa will file a criminal revision petition Monday in the Karnataka High Court to seek bail in the four-year jail term she has been sentenced to for corruption.

“A team of senior lawyers met Jayalalithaa Sunday in the visitors’ room of the central jail where she is lodged since Saturday and discussed content of the bail application with her,” an AIADMK leader told IANS here later.

Eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani is being roped in to argue the case for securing an early bail to Jayalalithaa considering her health and age-related ailments.

“Senior counsel are studying the judgement for drafting the bail application. We have sought Jethmalani’s services to secure the bail by getting the conviction stayed or lowering the sentence on health grounds,” said the leader who declined to be named.

Though the high court will remain closed from Monday till Oct 6 for the Dussehra holidays, a vacation bench will take up urgent or special cases on merits Tuesday and Thursday.

According to special public prosecutor G. Bhavani Singh, only a high court or Supreme Court can hear bail petitions in corruption cases where the sentence is beyond three years.

Special judge John Michael D’Cunha Saturday held the Tamil Nadu chief minister and three other accused guilty of the criminal offence under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and sentenced them to four years jail.

The judge also imposed a hefty fine of Rs.100 crore on Jayalalithaa and Rs.10 crore each on the other three convicts, as the prosecution proved with material evidence that they had amassed illegally assets valued at Rs.54 crore in 1996.

The other three are Jayalalithaa’s confidente Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi. All the three are also lodged in the central jail.

(IANS)