Approach SC in Jayalalithaa case: SPP recommends State

Karnataka High Court on May 11 had acquitted all the accused in the disproportionate assets case.

Senior advocate B.V. Acharya. File photo.

Special Public Prosecutor B.V. Acharya on Thursday recommended to the Government of Karnataka to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Karnataka High Court’s verdict of acquitting AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa and three others in the disproportionate assets (DA) case.

“I have given my opinion to the State government after going through the High Court’s verdict. I have said that it is fit to appeal to the apex court,” said Mr. Acharya, while refusing to divulge details of his legal opinion in which he has analysed the 919-page verdict.

The High Court on May 11 had acquitted all of them for lack of evidence to establish that they had possessed DA value of which was Rs. 53.6 crore as held by a Special Court, which in its September 27, 2014 verdict had convicted and sentenced them to four years imprisonment.

“The percentage of disproportionate assets is 8.12 p.c. It is relatively small. In the instant case, the disproportionate asset is less than 10 p.c. and it is within permissible limit. Therefore, accused are entitled for acquittal,” Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy of the High Court had held in its verdict.

In response to a query on ‘the “glaring arithmetical error” committed by the High Court in its verdict, Mr. Acharya said the judge, who delivered the verdict, can’t “alter or review” the verdict in view of the bar imposed under Section 362 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

“The High Court, going by the facts of this case, cannot have a relook into the verdict in the DA case,” Mr. Acharya said when asked about possibilities of High Court correcting the “error” in computing loans, obtained by Ms. Jayalalithaa, her three aides, and their firms, from the nationalised banks that the High Court had treated as their “income”.

The State government will now decide on filing an appeal in the Supreme Court next week after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah meets with Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra, legal experts of the Law Department.

Tamil Nadu Bureau reports:

\Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the original complainant, also said he would move the Supreme Court next month against the acquittal, if the Karnataka government did not do so by June 1.