A petition filed by the niece and nephew of the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, seeking the release of her properties seized by the authorities, has been dismissed by a Bengaluru court. The properties were confiscated in 2004 in a disproportionate assets case.
On Wednesday, Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge H.A. Mohan dismissed the petition filed by J. Deepak and J. Deepa. The judge ruled that all the properties were acquired through illegal means and therefore should be confiscated by the government, rather than being given to the petitioners.
The petitioners argued that since Jayalalitha had passed away before the Supreme Court's judgment, the order of abatement cleared her of any wrongdoing in the case. They claimed to be legal heirs entitled to the properties.
However, the judge noted that the Supreme Court's order of abatement only applied to the punishment portion of the case, not the confiscation of properties. Despite being named as legal heirs in Jayalalitha's estate, the petitioners were deemed ineligible to receive the seized properties based on the circumstances.
In 2017, the Supreme Court convicted the then AIADMK General Secretary, Jayalalitha, and her associate, Sasikala Natarajan, in connection with the disproportionate assets case that had been filed in 2004. This judgment overturned the Karnataka High Court's previous acquittal of Jayalalitha and Sasikala.
List of assets seized
In December 1996, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had seized 29 items from Jayalalithaa's residence in Poes Garden, Chennai. Out of these, only 30kg of valuable items such as gold, diamond, ruby, emerald, pearls, and other precious stones were later transferred to the special court in Bengaluru after the trial was shifted to Karnataka by the Supreme Court.
The remaining 28 items, which include 11,344 saris, a gold pen, a gold belt (Ottiyanam), a gold mango, 91 wristwatches and one gold watch, 700kg of silver, 298 pieces of furniture, 750 pairs of footwear, 44 air-conditioners, INR 1.6 lakh in cash, and around 400 other items, are yet to be surrendered to the Bengaluru court.
