Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Jewels evaluation exaggerated: Sasikalaa

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI FEB. 25 . Questioning of the accused in the "Rs. 66.65-crore disproportionate wealth case" against Jayalalithaa, under Section 313 Cr.P.C., began in a special court here today with N. Sasikalaa, cited as the second accused, submitting that the appraiser's jewellery evaluation report was `exaggerated'.

Answering a court question on valuation of gold, diamond and silver articles, seized during a search of the Poes Garden residence here of Ms. Jayalalithaa, by the Customs appraiser, Vasudevan, Ms. Sasikalaa said the official had given a wrong report. When the search was on, she was in prison. Hence she did not know anything about the official's visit or what he did. She was already paying a wealth tax for the gold and diamond jewellery and silver items. That being the case, wanton publicity was given (during the previous rule) to the jewellery and silver articles, for which the tax had been paid, for political advantage. Similarly, Ms. Jayalalithaa was also paying the wealth tax for the jewellery. "Nothing new was discovered" (during the search by the investigating agency), she said.

After closing prosecution evidence, R. Rajamanickam, special judge-I, on Monday posted the case for questioning of the accused today. The court granted a request by Ms. Jayalalithaa, cited as the main accused, to dispense with her presence for the hearing. As ordered by the court, she filled in a questionnaire and returned it along with her affidavit, through her counsel.

The other three accused — Ms. Sasikalaa and her relatives, V.N. Sudhagaran and Ilavarasi — came to the court and the questioning was gone through. The process commenced around 11 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m. A total of 150 questions were put to the accused. The questioning would continue tomorrow.

Ms. Sasikalaa said the valuation of the Poes Garden residence at Rs. 7.24 crores was `unfair' and it was wrong. She also described as wrong a report, in which the value of four unfinished houses at Injambakkam here, involved in the case, had been given as Rs. 53.11 lakhs. Similarly, a wrong report was given that two houses at Sholinganallur were valued at Rs. 80.37 lakhs. It was not correct to say Rs. 18,000 had been given as demolition charges for a building on St. Mary's Road here.

An `exaggerated figure' of Rs. 25 lakhs was given for a `luxury bus', which, she said, had been purchased in the name of Jaya Publications. The former Transport Minister, K.A. Sengottaiyan, was not associated with the matter. The witness, who spoke about the valuation, tendered false evidence before the court.

The land at Uthukottai was purchased as per the value contained in the document and nothing extra was paid. As the property was later sold, it should not be considered hers.

The music director, Gangai Amaran, had tendered false evidence on the sale of his land at Paiyanoor.

Unnecessarily he had dragged in the name of Ms. Jayalalithaa. In response to a question, the accused said that at no time was any government official used for personal work.

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