Jayalalithaa to seek bail from High Court

The chief minister of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa was found guilty of amassing wealth of more than $10m (£6.1m) which was unaccounted for and she has to pay a 1bn rupee ($16m; £10m) fine and resign as chief minister.

The judge also imposed a hefty fine of Rs. 100 crore on chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and Rs.10 crore each on the other three convicts (Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi) , as the prosecution proved with material evidence that they had amassed illegally assets valued at Rs.54 crore in 1996.

A former actress, her life has been marked by a series of high and lows.

The verdict was delivered by a special court in Bangalore amid tight security.

Along with three members Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi, Jayalalitha was sentenced to an immediate jail term, and was due to be sent to Parappana Agrahara prison in Bangalore, but she complained of chest pains and giddiness after the verdict was delivered, the Times of India reported, and was sent to the prison hospital for assessment.

AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa on Monday filed a petition Monday in the Karnataka High Court to seek bail in the four-year jail term she has been sentenced to for corruption, TV reports say.

The High Court will hear Jayalalithaa's plea on Tuesday. Though the high court will remain closed from Monday till Oct 6 for the Dussehra holidays, a vacation bench will take up urgent or special cases on merits Tuesday and Thursday.

According to special public prosecutor G. Bhavani Singh, only a high court or Supreme Court can hear bail petitions in corruption cases where the sentence is beyond three years.

According to reports, a team of senior lawyers met Jayalalithaa Sunday in the visitors' room of the central jail where she is lodged since Saturday and discussed content of the bail application with her.

Eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani is being roped in to argue the case for securing an early bail to Jayalalithaa considering her health and age-related ailments.

"Senior counsel is studying the judgment for drafting the bail application. We have sought Jethmalani services to secure the bail by getting the conviction stayed or lowering the sentence on health grounds," an AIADMK leader told IANS who declined to be named.

Special judge John Michael D'Cunha on Saturday held the Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and three other (Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi) accused guilty of the criminal offence under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and sentenced them to four years jail.

The other three are Jayalalithaa's confidente Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi. All the three are also lodged in the central prison in Bangalore