Sasikala convicted in DA case: How a Poes Garden raid did her in

Over the past week or so, one of the staunch supporters of VK Sasikala claim to form a government in Tamil Nadu was BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. He was seen openly supporting her in TV channels and even met the governor at Chennai. Ironically then, the final blow that dashed Sasikala's hopes of occupying the chief minister's chair came from a bullet fired by Swamy two decades ago.

In fact, while Swamy's complaint named only Jayalalithaa, a raid of Poes garden and evidences gathered there and other locations in 1996-97, brought in Sasikala, her nephew VN Sudhakaran and her sister in law J Elavarasi as accused no 2, 3 and 4 in what came to be known as the disproportionate assets (DA) case.

The trial court judgment by Justice John Michael Cunha in September 2014, records that the criminal law was set in motion against former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa by Subramanian Swamy, the then president of Janata Dal.

He lodged a complaint on June 14, 1996 alleging that, subsequent to the assumption of the public office of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa acquired properties and earned income disproportionate to her known source of income. The complaint came a month after the AIADMK was condemned to its worst defeat till date in the Assembly elections. Jayalalithaa herself lost in Barugur. Her party was reduced to four seats from 164, five years earlier.(Read More)