DMK leader K. Anbazhagan on Monday challenged in the Supreme Court the acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa by the Karnataka High Court in a disproportionate assets case.

Terming the High Court judgment as patently wrong, the special leave petition filed by Mr. Anbazhagan said the High Court single judge’s verdict acquitting her ignored the Supreme Court’s directions to apply all care and caution, provide concrete reasons and appreciate vital evidence in the wealth before reaching a conclusion.

The petition, filed by Supreme Court advocate V.G. Pragasam, sought an interim stay of the “patently wrong judgment”, which resulted in the consequential removal of disqualification of Ms. Jayalalithaa.

This petition closely follows the Karnataka government’s special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the acquittal.

In its petition, the Karnataka government termed the May 11 judgment by Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy a “gross miscarriage of justice”, and ridiculed the calculations arrived at by the judge, which resulted in the exoneration of Ms. Jayalalithaa and three co-accused — N. Sasikala Natarajan, V.N. Sudhakaran and J. Elavarasi — in the corruption case.

Seeking an interim stay, the Karnataka petition said the HC judge did not even bother to record cogent reasons for reversing the “well-considered judgment” delivered by trial court judge John Michael D' Cunha on September 27, 2014.

Among other grounds for challenge, Mr. Anbazhagan contended that the High Court ought not to have accepted the gifts of the value of Rs.1,50,00,000 received by Ms. Jayalalithaa as income as it was not from a lawful source.

His petition also contended that the income tax returns filed by the accused for the check period between 1991 to 1996 was an “afterthought to account for the illegitimate assets acquired by them”.

It contended that the High Court committed grave error in rejecting the charges of abetment and conspiracy against the accused.

The DMK leader argued that the High Court further misdirected itself and got “carried away by the inflated loan amount of Rs.24,17,31,274 arrived by gross mathematical miscalculation”.

“The most important piece of link which connects all the accused and proves abetment and conspiracy is the fact that the funds were transferred or remitted to the accounts of their 34 bogus companies with 100 bank accounts either from the bank account held in the name of Namadhu MGR, Jaya Publications or other firms run by them,” the petition contended.

The clinching argument

The value of disproportionate assets was Rs. 2.82 crore and this value was not enough to convict them on charges of corruption, said Justice C.R. Kumaraswamy in his verdict while disagreeing with the verdict of the Special Court, which had computed the value of DA at Rs. 53.6 crore.