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Jayalalithaa had swept the Assembly elections in 1991, held after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in alliance with the Congress (I).
Within a few months, there were whispers of her close aide Sasikala, wife of Natarajan, a former Tamil Nadu Government Information & Public Relations Department official, acting as an extra-constitutional authority, and how Sasikala’s relatives were calling the shots.
Corruption charges Even as charges of corruption mounted, what truly turned public apathy into anger against Jayalalithaa was the lavish wedding of her foster son Sudhakaran, a nephew of Sasikala, in Chennai on September 7, 1995.
Photographs showed Jayalalithaa and Sasikala, decked in jewellery and walking together in the wedding procession. The wedding was estimated to have cost a few crore rupees.
The opposition DMK fought the Assembly elections in 1996 highlighting the corruption during Jayalalithaa’s first tenure as Chief Minister from 1991 to 1996, and promised to take action against her.
Sure enough it did. The DMK government under M Karunanidhi filed over a dozen cases against Jayalalithaa (see table), in several of which Jayalalithaa was acquitted.
She was arrested on December 7, 1996 in what is known as the Colour TV case, in which she was alleged to have got kickbacks of ₹8.5 crore in the purchase of over 45,000 colour television sets for village community viewing centres.
She spent nearly a month in jail and was released on bail on January 3, 1997.
Several investigations Apart from the corruption cases, Jayalalithaa also had to face investigation and cases by the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and the Income-Tax Department.
Besides Jayalalithaa, a few Ministers, Sasikala and a few IAS officers were also charged in these cases.
The Tamil Nadu government constituted special courts to try the corruption cases against Jayalalithaa. Of all the cases, the disproportionate assets case — or as is more commonly referred to, the wealth case — is the one that has dragged and in which she was convicted. On Monday, she emerged triumphant, acquitted from the long-drawn-out wealth case, as well.
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