It's criminal conspiracy, says SC in 21-year old DA Case

Legal experts close to the Sasikala camp are exploring legal options for furthering the judicial battle, even as the judgement in this case has once again sent Sasikala back to the Parpana Agraharam jail in Bengaluru.

June 14, 1996: Dr. Subramanian Swamy, then president of the Janata Party files a private complaint against former Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa and others, alleging that they had amassed wealth disproportionate to the known sources of income with the principal district and sessions judge, Chennai.

June 21, 1996: The court directs then joint director of Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption to investigate the private complaint. 

August 18, 1996: Following a preliminary enquiry report from DVAC, the then DMK government directs DVAC to register a case against Jayalalitha and to investigate.

December 7, 1996: Police arrest Jayalalitha and put her behind bars.

January 1, 1997: Sasikala, a close aide of Jayalalithaa, her sister-in-law Elavarasi, Sudhakaran, Sasikala’s nephew and Jayalalithaa’s adopted son were included as co accused in the case.

June 4, 1997: The chargesheet was filed in the case before the 11th Additional Sessions judge, Chennai, which was the designated special court under Sections 120 B, 109 of IPC and Sections 13(2), 13(1) (e) of Prevention of Corruption Act.

October 21, 1997: The charges were framed against the accused and the trial of the case begins. In the year 2000 there was another case registered against the same accused on same charges and a subsequent chargesheet also was filed. 

November 18, 2003: K Anbazhagan, the then finance minister with the DMK government filed a transfer petition before the Supreme Court requesting to transfer the cases against Jayalalithaa and others to a court in Karnataka. SC admits the petition and gives directions to this effect.

June 27, 2005: The special court Bangalore passes orders for clubbing both the cases while admitting a pending petition and calls for a joint trial.

July, 2005: Anbazahagan approaches SC once again to get the clubbing order quashed and SC stays all proceedings in the case till January 22, 2010.

March 2, 2012: Supreme Court direct the special court to record the statement of Sasikala in the case. Her statement was recorded in Tamil and later translated to English and the record was kept at the court. In the same year the special public prosecutor BV Acharya resigned and the special judge also reached superannuation.

November, 2012: A new special judge was appointed.

February 2, 2013: G Bhavani Singh appointed as new special public prosecutor and later the Karnataka government later issues a notification cancelling his appointment.

September 30,2013: Supreme Court reinstates Bhavani Singh.

September 26, 2014: Supreme Court stays the trial and lifts the stay on the next month.

August 28, 2014: Both the parties conclude their arguments in the case at the trial court.

September 27, 2014: The trial court convicts Jayalalitha (A1), Sasikala (A2), Sudhakaran (A3) and Elavarasi (A4) to undergo 4 years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs.100 crores on Jayalalithaa. The court also imposed a fine of Rs.10 crore each on other accused. The accused were then arrested and sent to a prison in Karnataka.'

September 29, 2014: Tamil Nadu government appeals against the trial court order and appoints Bhavani Singh as prosecutor for the appeals at Karnataka High Court.

October 17,2014: Supreme Court grants bail to Jayalalithaa and others and are released from the prison.

December 18, 2014: Supreme Court directed Karnataka High Court to decide on Jayalalithaa’s appeal in three months.

January 5, 2015: Karnataka High Court judge Kumaraswami started hearing on the appeal.

March 11, 2015: Karnataka High Court judge Kumaraswami concludes the hearing and reserve the order on the appeal.

April 18, 2015: Supreme Court directs Kumaraswami to deliver the judgement in the case by May 12. SC also directs the judge to ignore Bhavani Singh’s submissions and to consider submissions of Karnataka government and Anbazhagan.

April 27, 2015: Karnataka government brings back B V Acharya as special public prosecutor and both Anbazhagan and Acharya submits written submissions.

May 11, 2015: In a much criticised order, judge Kumarswami acquits all the four accused and quashes the trial court order.

May 23, 2015: Karnataka moves Supreme Court against the Kumaraswami order.

June 7, 2016: The division bench of Supreme Court consisting Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Amitava Roy reserves order on the appeal after hearing detailed arguments for four months.

December 5, 2016: J Jayalalithaa, who managed to retain power for the second consecutive term, died after a controversial 72-day hospitalisation.

February 14, 2017: SC upheld the trial court verdict and convict all the four accused sentencing them to 4 years’ imprisonment and to pay the fine imposed by the trial court.