One of the biggest points in the wealth case that went against AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa in the trial court was the veracity of the subscription scheme launched by Namadhu MGR, the party mouthpiece. But this went entirely in her favour in the High Court’s order on Monday.
The trial court had dubbed the Rs 13.89 crore subscription scheme as fictitious and an “afterthought” that was made up to account for disproportionate income after the prosecution went ahead with its case in 1996. The trial judge made scathing remarks against the scheme, calling the evidence produced by the defence in its support as forged.
Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy, who acquitted Ms. Jayalalithaa and three others, however, accepted the scheme as part of legitimate income of Jaya Publications, a firm in which the former Chief Minister was a partner.
While Mr. Justice Kumaraswamy concurs that the Income Tax returns for the component of ‘Namadhu MGR’ have been filed belatedly, and such delay “disentitles the assessee substantially” apart from raising suspicion about the material produced, he, however, takes into account the evidence provided by defence witnesses in accepting the scheme. Some of these witnesses were AIADMK partymen.
“Taking into consideration the evidence of defence witnesses mentioned hereinabove, even if there is a delay in filing the Income Tax returns, this cannot be a factor to reject the whole claim of the assessee. The evidence adduced by the defence will have some force,” the order said.
He moves on to state in the order Rs 4 crore had to be taken as income earned by Jaya Publications, which becomes a substantial component in the final calculation of disproportionate assets, which the High Court found to be only 8.12 per cent of the income. But the summary of the ‘Namadhu MGR’ component in the order does not give an explanation as to why only Rs 4 crore had been accounted for, while the deposit scheme itself was worth about Rs 14 crore.
