Let Us Celebrate Justice for Celebrities - II
Within days from the suspension of sentence of Mr Salman Khan, we witnessing one more controversial thing - Acquittal of J Jayalalitha, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. This happened on appeal in a case where she was sentenced after 18 years of hearings in various courts (some of them were regular in Tamil Nadu itself and some special courts either constituted by Tamil Nadu Government or Supreme Court). The case is about assets disproportionate to the income of Jayalalitha and her associates (Sashikala, her son and some companies) by an amount of around Rs 66 Crores. In current days of where people talk about hundreds of Crores of rupees as loose change, the amount stated looks like a pittance. But remember around 18-20 years back this is a substantial amount. Even the much celebrated Bofors case involves a total amount of Rs 130 - 160 Crores only.
Several strange things happened during the hearings of this case. This case pertains to the unabashed display of wealth by Jayalalitha and her associate during the wedding of her adopted son around 20 years back. Many of the current generation may not have heard about these things. But there were stories in news papers around that time as to how all the rooms in Five Star hotels in Chennai were booked for 3-5 days for the guests, what was the cost of marriage invitation which was given to the selected top echelon of the society. According to one news story I read at that time, the marriage invitations where of 3 categories. The top category reserved for the top politicians and industry leaders of the country costing around Rs 5 Lakh per invitation, consisting of a Kanchipuram silk saree costing around Rs 1 Lakh given along with the wedding invitation in a silver plate etc. Entire state machinery was utilised during the wedding quite unabashedly. The total cost of wedding according to estimates was around Rs 6 Crores.
It is true that Jayalalitha was a top heroine in her heyday. But unlike the current generation, the heroines of yesteryears were not paid that much amount. Their pay was much lower compared to the Heros. Even then she stopped acting nearly 10 - 15 years before becoming Chief Minister. So the natural question arises where from this money came from. The case was filed by Mr Subramaniam Swamy, then president of Janata Party (now in BJP - ruling party of the country). The case went through several phases in 18 years of time. In between this case was transferred to the state of Karnataka on the plea of a DMK (a party opposed to Jayalalitha's party AIADMK) as they fear that justice will not happen in this case.
This is the only case where the accused party pleads for continuation of the same Public Prosecutor (who opposes them in the court of Law) and extension of the term of Judge of the special court who retired during the hearings.
Anyway after 18 long years the judge of special trail court found her guilty in the case and sentenced her for 4 years in Jail and a Rs 100 Crore fine. As per the Peoples Representation Act, she even lost her right to contest in elections for 10 years. She appealed for a bail to Karnakata High Court which rejected her plea. She appealed to Supreme Court which granted bail and directed the Karnataka High Court to decide on the appeal in six months. The arguments of the defence were concluded after 2 months and around March 11th of this year the Judge has reserved the decision. Here the case gets curious again. There was no public prosecutor involved in this case as the Supreme Court has voided the continuation of the current one (remember the one for whom the accused pleaded for continuation?) A public prosecutor was appointed after March 11th by which time the case has been rested and reserved for decision. So effectively there is no opposition from the Government side to this appeal. All the accused were acquitted yesterday and even the properties which were attached are going to be released stating that the disproportionate assets only amount to around 8 percent of the stated income and they can be there upto 20% of the income. Also as per the judgement the prime accused is not responsible for the entire expenses of the marriage of her adopted son. Also the prosecution could not prove the value of assets worth Rs 28 Crore stated by them.
As a common man, I think some of the questions are unanswered
- why should the accused request for same public prosecutor and extension of the term for a retired judge?
- When the prosecution was not even given a chance to present their arguments, how can they prove the value of the assets?
- The means of associates of Ms Jayalalitha were not great prior to her becoming Chief Minister. If so why not make her responsible for marriage expenses as it is she who is performing the marriage of her adopted son?
- Why is that the justice in case of a common man always run in a predicable line from the lowest of the courts to the highest (in maximum cases the judgements of lower courts will be confirmed on appeal) while this is not so for the cases of Celebrities?
Everybody needs to follow the law to the letter, but it seems the celebrities are more than equals compared to the common folk.
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