The blow delivered by the Karnataka High Court to former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday seems to have caused divisions within the AIADMK on whether her lawyers deployed the right strategy in their handling of the bail applications.
A senior party leader told The Hindu that it was unclear why the lawyers ignored health and humanitarian grounds usually cited during such pleas.
Even during the delivery of the judgment by the trial court in the assets case, Ms. Jayalalithaa reportedly cited her age and her health condition to seek a lenient sentence since the maximum punishment for the offence she was booked for was seven years in prison. The trial court ultimately sentenced her to four-year simple imprisonment.
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Also, the leader said there was a view among a section of party leaders that the focus of the lawyers on Tuesday was too much on disputing the trial court order rather than on seeking bail.
“Over three hours of arguments were advanced. And most of the effort was spent on disproving the trial court order rather than convincing the judge for bail. The focus should have been on the bail,” the leader said.