The Karnataka government on Tuesday filed a seven-page report highlighting the errors made by the Karnataka High Court in a disproportionate assets case involving Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and three others. The state pointed out that her acquittal can be set aside by simply correcting a “totalling mistake”, The Hindu reported, to show that the value of her disproportionate assets is 76.7% of her income and not 8.1% as the court had concluded.
Appeals against the May 2015 judgement that exonerated her will be heard in the Supreme Court on February 2. The state government also asked whether the fact that it was neither considered nor ignored as the “sole prosecuting agency” in the case would not vitiate the judgment. It added that the public prosecutor was not given the chance of an oral hearing and that he had to submit his points, on Supreme Court orders, in writing, at the end of appeals against the High Court verdict.
Counsel for both parties were asked to file their main points to be considered within the next two weeks. The Supreme Court also allowed Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who had filed the original case against Jayalalithaa, to file issues he wished to bring up before it.
A court in 2014 had pronounced Jayalalithaa guilty of corruption, sentencing her to four years in prison and fining her Rs 100 crore.
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