Photo Credits: PTI2_14_2017_000231B
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SASIKALA SAGA
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Corruption is 'insatiable' vice for wealth: SC Judge
PTI
New Delhi
Corruption is an “insatiable vice” for wealth which gave unfair advantage to the dishonest, leading to escalation of the divide between the haves and the have-nots, the Supreme Court said Tuesday.
Pulling the curtains down on the sensational 19-year-old assets case involving late J Jayalalithaa and her close aide Sasikala, Justice Amitava Roy said the maze of 34 companies, most of them shell firms, were created to deceive process of law and justify the unaccounted wealth, showing a deep-rooted conspiracy for amassing vast assets.
Justice Roy, who wrote a separate but concurring verdict in the case, dealt with the growing menace of corruption in public life and said it emanated from “moral debasement” of people and “gave unfair advantage to the dishonest, leading to escalation of the divide between the haves and have nots.”
Corruption is the “insatiable vice” for wealth and “unscrupulous” elements take unfair advantage of their power and authority in public office and breach institutional norms.
“The attendant facts and circumstances encountered, demonstrate a deep-rooted conspiratorial design to amass vast assets without any compunction and hold the same through shell entities to cover up the sinister trail of such illicit acquisitions and deceive and delude process of law. Novelty in the outrages and the magnitude of the nefarious gains as demonstrated by the revelations in the case are startling.
“A growing impression in contemporary existence seems to acknowledge the all pervading pestilent presence of corruption almost in every walk of life, as if to rest reconciled to the octopoid stranglehold of this malaise with helpless awe. The common day experiences indeed do introduce one with unfailing regularity, the variegated cancerous concoctions of corruption with fearless impunity gnawing into the frame and fabric of nation's essentia,” Justice Roy said.
“Corruption is a vice of insatiable avarice for self aggrandizement by the unscrupulous, taking unfair advantage of their power and authority and those in public office also, in breach of the institutional norms, mostly backed by minatory loyalists. Both the corrupt and the corrupter are indictable and answerable to the society and the country as a whole.
“This is more particularly in the peoples' representatives in public life committed by the oath of the office to dedicate oneself to the unqualified welfare of the laity, by faithfully and conscientiously discharging their duties attached thereto in accordance with the Constitution, free from fear or favour or affection or ill-will,” Justice Roy said.
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Conspiracy hatched
at Jaya's residence
Chennai's Poes Garden, residence of late J Jayalalithaa, was the hub of conspiracy and the money flow from one account to another proved the existence of an “active conspiracy” to launder the then Chief Minister's “ill-gotten wealth” to purchase properties in the names of the shell companies, the Supreme Court said.
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Gifts received by Jaya
not lawful income
* Cash and gifts to the tune of Rs 2.15 crore received by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on her birthday cannot be considered lawful income, the Supreme Court said
* The apex court concurred with the findings of the trial court rejecting Jayalalithaa's plea that an amount of Rs 2.15 crore and foreign remittance worth Rs 77.52 lakh were received by her as birthday gifts in 1992 which should be considered as her lawful income
* These gifts were in the form of jewellery, cash, demand draft, silver items, silk sarees and framed portraits on the occasion of her birthday, the court noted.
Mushrooming a/cs
of Jaya, Sasikala
* Mushrooming of 50 bank accounts of late J Jayalalithaa and VK Sasikala between 1991 and 1995 was to utilise the transfer of their huge unaccounted money, the Supreme Court said today, giving credence to the trial court findingsThe Apex Court noted that about 50 banks accounts were opened in the names of accused persons and the companies
* The apex court referred to the trial court findings and said it had “held the view that the respondents in the case in hand had failed to offer any satisfactory explanation with regard to the enormous unexplained credit/accumulations in their bank accounts”
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Palaniswami: From local functionary to Legislature Party Leader
Chennai PTI
From an ordinary party member to the Leader of AIADMK legislature party, Edappadi K Palaniswami has come a long way.
Amid the bitter turf war between AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala and acting chief minister O Panneerselvam, the 63-year-old loyalist of late J Jayalalithaa was elected Leader of AIADMK legislature party to facilitate his elevation as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.
“He was an unwavering loyalist of late Jayalalithaa, and chose to side with V K Sasikala after O Panneerselvam revolted against the interim general secretary,” a close aide of Palaniswami told PTI.
Born into an agriculture family, Palaniswami began his political career in AIADMK in 1974 as an ordinary party member.
A native of Nedungulam village in Salem district, he later became a local level party secretary for Siluvampalayam in Edappadi Panchayat Union in Salem.
A Science graduate, he swore allegiance to Jayalalithaa when AIADMK split into two factions, one led by her and the other by party founder M G Ramachandran's wife Janaki, after MGR's death in 1987.
In 1985, even before the demise of MGR, Palaniswami's followers say he had put up a separate party flag mast “honouring” Puratchi Thalaivi Amma across Edappadi region.
In 1990, when Jayalalithaa unified the AIADMK, he was elevated as Salem North District joint secretary.
In 1989, 1991, 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls, he won from Edappadi constituency. When AIADMK was routed in the 1996 Assembly polls, he too lost from Edapadi.
Similarly, he was defeated in the 2001, 2006 Assembly polls and the 1999 and 2004 parliamentary polls. In 1998, he went to Lok Sabha by winning the Tiruchengode Lok Sabha seat.
A grass-roots level leader, Palaniswamy's growth in the party in a career spanning over 40 years has been steady.
His clout in AIADMK saw a dramatic rise when it won 10 of 11 Assembly segments in Salem district in the 2016 polls.
Acknowledging his contributions, he was given the key portfolio of Public Works, besides Highways and Minor Ports, which he had already been holding.
Since 2011, he is Minister for Highways and Minor Ports and he was among the senior ministers who had proximity to Jayalalithaa.
He has held various party posts including propaganda secretary, organisation secretary, and disciplinary committee member.
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The apex court said V K Sasikala and her two relatives - VN Sudhakaran, Jayalalithaa's foster son, and Elavarasi, the widow of Sasikala's elder brother, resided at Poes Garden with Jayalalithaa “without any blood relation between them.” They were “accommodated” there, not on humanitarian concern, but pursuant to the conspiracy hatched by them.
“The flow of money from one account to the other proves that there existed active conspiracy to launder the ill-gotten wealth of Jayalalithaa for purchasing properties in the names of the firms,” a bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said while convicting Sasikala and her relatives in the 19-year-old disproportionate assets case.
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Setting up of 10 firms in a day
shows launder conspiracy: SCAs many as 10 companies were set up in just one day to launder ill-gotten wealth, the Supreme Court has noted in its judgment convicting AIADMK General Secretary Sasikala and two others guilty of hatching a conspiracy in this regard.
A bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy upheld the trial court findings and said these firms were nothing but extension of Namadhu MGR and Jaya Publications and that they owed their existence to the benevolence of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the current AIADMK General Secretary V K Sasikala.
The apex court said the trial court had “correctly” come to the conclusion on such a reasoning.
The bench said that “the constitution of various firms during the check period was another circumstance establishing the conspiracy between the parties. It has come in evidence that 10 firms were constituted on a single day.” The court noted that as many as 34 firms fell for scrutiny in the course of adjudication and most of them were formed only during the July 1, 1991 to April 30, 1996, the period in which the convicts amassed disproportionate assets.
