No Escape Routes

IT still feels like a dream. People are struggling to come to terms with the information pouring out every day about the incredible smoothness with which former chief minister of TamilNadu, J. Jayalalitha, and her cronies accumulated wealth and looted the state. And the flow of revelations has not quite ebbed. Says S.R. Balasubramaniam, Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs : "It is the tip of the iceberg. More will come out in the next few months." In terms of sheer scale, the scandals involving the AIADMK government have eclipsed most others that shook post-Independent India. 

And with the courts getting increasingly assertive, there seems to be no escape route for Jayalalitha. The Madras High Court dismissed her petition seeking a declaration that the search operations at her residences in Chennai and Hyderabad were illegal. The question being debated in various fora is: how much more gold and jewels would have surfaced if the search had been conducted before the speculated six months of frantic ferrying away of valuables from the house had begun? Even at this late date, the booty uncovered has been mindboggling.

The inventory includes 750 pairs of footwear, 800 kgs of silver, 28 kgs of gold, 10,500 sarees including 750 silk sarees, 91 watches, 44 air conditioners and furniture worth Rs 50 lakh. Placed at Jayalalitha’s service was a fleet of 19 cars, including a Mercedes Benz, a Contessa, a Tata Sierra, a Tata Estate, a Tata Sumo, two DCM Toyotas, Trax Jeeps and Maruti 1000s, a Armada jeep, a Maruti 800, five Ambassadors and a Fiat.

Evidence of purchase of properties worth Rs 20 crore has come up with the seizure of several documents. In Hyderabad, there are two houses with 15 acres of land in Jay-alalitha’s name. The houses alone are worth Rs 5 crore. The multi-storeyed extension, with attached mini-theatre, that she built next to her Poes Garden bungalow is worth Rs 15 crore. The list goes on and on.

Despite all this, Jayalalitha firmly reiterates that her arrest was unfair. However, the principal sessions judge, A. Ramamurthy, dismissing Jayalalitha’s bail plea, observed that "there is no mala fide in her arrest as she was arrested only on December 7, whereas the FIR was registered on August 14. The others accused in the case were arrested on October 1. Jayalalitha had been arrested only after a long lapse of time after her anticipatory bail was dismissed by the high court."

The DMK government has been very careful in handling the cases against Jayalalitha. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is determined not to be seen as being either vindictive or inefficient. Senior Counsel N. Natarajan, according to sources, is not only appearing on behalf of the government in all the Jayalalitha cases but is also advising the government on the case.

The DMK suspects Prime Minister Deve Gowda’s hand in the revocation of Sasikala’s arrest in the first COFEPOSA case by the Central Advisory Board. She had to be re-arrested on a FERA case. To avoid such developments, the state government has decided to follow the various cases separately. Jayalalitha has been arrested in only one case—the colour TV scam. If she gets bail on this, she could be arrested in one of the other six cases.  

Of the seven cases registered against her so far, six are being investigated by the crime branch of the CID. The foreign exchange immunity case in which Jayalalitha received $3,00,000 from the Banker’s Trust Company, US, is being investigated by the CBI. Says CBI Director Joginder Singh: "Substantial progress has been made in the $3,00,000 case. We cannot function on the lines of investigation in one day, prosecution in one day and arrest in one day. It is important for us to prove our case in the court of law rather than before the press."

The cases where investigations are almost complete are the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Ltd (TANSI) land deal case, the coal import case and Pleasant Stay Hotel case. The CID’s crime branch says it has irrefutable evidence to establish that Jayalalitha had "abused her official position at every stage of the transaction to obtain the TANSI property, though no public interest was involved". Jaya Publications and Sasi Enterprises are alleged to have gained pecuniary advantage worth Rs 3.5 crore and Rs 55.88 lakh respectively. Jayalalitha and Sasikala were partners in these firms. 

In the coal import case, the crime branch CID has established that the Jayalalitha government had extended mala fide and intentional relaxations of tender conditions, thereby favouring suppliers of inferior quality coal to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. One of the most important conditions relating to the quality of the coal is that the gross calorific value should be 6,000 to 6,800 KCAL/kg. But the tender did not make any differentiation between superior and inferior grade coal, though there was a large price difference between the two. 

Further, the norms of evaluation of tenderers were introduced only on April 6, ’93 after the tenders had been opened on March 10 the same year. While the decision to import two million tonnes of coal had been taken at a meeting on March 30, 1993 and the price fixed at US$ 40.75 per tonne, the minutes were amended on June 6, 1993, to hike the price to $42.74 per tonne. 

The promoters of Alagendran & Bros International Pvt Ltd—the agency which got the tender to import inferior Indonesian Coal—are close associates of Sasikala, says the CID. The agency was permitted to transfer the contract to SINTAX International Trading House Pvt Ltd, Australia, despite the proposal being rejected by the TNEB board. The Australian firm was represented by Dr Anandkrishnan, a relation of Alagen-dran’s promoters. The amount involved in the transfer was Rs 56.35 crore. Apart from the illegality of transferring of contract, all the profits arising out of the import were transferred surreptitiously to Australia. The investigators have established evidence of a fraud to the tune of Rs 117 crore.

IN the Pleasant Stay Hotel case, Justice Srinvasan’s judgement, indicting Jayalalitha and her cabinet colleague T.M. Selvaganapathy, forms the basis of the chargesheet. This was the first case where a chief minister overruled all objections raised by various bodies from the municipality to the district collector and environmental department—the objections were against the violation of the floor space index regulations. 

Over 40 properties in Chennai and its suburbs belonging to Sasikala and her kin have been unearthened in the investigations by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption. This includes a villa built along the lines of an English castle on a 200-acre site at Sirudavur about 10 km from Mahabalipuram; the Payyanoor bungalow which was forcibly wrested from film music director Gangai Amaran, brother of music director Illayaraja; Seashell Avenue Guest House near VGP Golden Beach; Sunrise Avenue Bungalow in Injambakkam; Neelankarai Bungalow on the East Coast Road; the twin bungalows on Murphy Road and a 72-flat apartment complex at Injambakkam.  

As the evidence against her mounts, Jayalalitha has changed tack in order to make her prolonged incarceration more tolerable. She has filed a writ in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to notify her Poes Garden residence as a prison citing her ‘Z’ category security cover and the fear of her life in any other prison. The high court has asked the state government to consider whether it would be possible to notify any other place as prison to ensure the security of the former chief minister. When the case comes up for hearing on December 23, the state government is likely to accept the court’s suggestion and notify a highly secluded, safe place as prison for Jayalalitha. This, however, could alienate her from her party cadre and spell the beginning of her political end.