Bangalore: AIADMK supporters celebrated by bursting crackers and dancing on the roads here after the Supreme Court granted bail to party chief Jayalalithaa in the illegal assets case, paving way for her homecoming for Diwali. The former chief minister of Indian state of Tamil Nadu has been granted bail by India’s Supreme Court after she was sent to a Bangalore jail almost three weeks earlier. She was convicted in a corruption case and sentenced to four years in jail.
The top court suspended Jayalalithaa’s sentence for two months and granted her an interim bail, provided she ‘makes available all documents and translated copies available to Karnataka High Court for speedy adjudication of her appeal against conviction’.
If Jayalalithaa fails to follow the apex court’s order and does not deliver the documents to the high court by December 18, the AIADMK supremo will have go back to jail.
Earlier, the Karnataka High Court rejected her bail plea. Following this, her legal team knocked on the doors of India’s highest court.
The 66-year-old politician had applied for bail on the basis of her advanced age and frail health. She had stated that she suffered from diabetes, hypertension, cellulitis and other ailments.
The former actress turned politican pledged to the court that she will remain in confinement of her house for 2-3 months while pressing for bail. The Supreme Court made that pledge a requirement, noting that since she had pleaded ill health, she must not move out of the premises of her home, and also not receive any visitors.
The court had also asked her to direct her party workers not to create a law and order problem in the state in a reference to the violent protests and shut downs that were by incensed AIADMK workers soon after she was sentenced. There were also threats made against people from Karnataka at the time.
The apex court also granted bail to Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala and her relatives V N Sudhakaran, disowned foster-son of the former Chief Minister, and Ilavarasi.
