Jayalalithaa¡¯s Gold Jewellery Worth Rs 6 Crore Will Stay In State Treasury Till Disproportionate Assets Case Is Closed
Jayalalithaa's Jewellery worth six crores to remain with Karnataka treasury.
Till the time, the disproportionate assets case filed by the state against her in the Supreme Court is disposed of, Gold jewellery worth over Rs 6 crore that belongs to the late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa will continue to lie in Karnataka¡¯s treasury.
The gold was seized during the raid on Jayalalithaa house in Chennai in 1996, by the income tax department, which reportedly also uncovered 750 pairs of footwear, 10,000 sarees, 800 kg of silver, 28 kg of gold, 44 air conditioners and 91 watches.
AFP
The raid took place after one year of Jayalathilaa held an extravagant wedding of her foster son Sudhakaran which became a talking point as Jayalalithaa had publicly declared she would take a salary of only Re 1 in her public office. Subramanian Swamy, a then Janata Party president had filed a disproportionate assets case against her. Angry Jayalalithaa, who had lost elections to DMK declared that she won't wear jewellery again. She had also spent a month in jail.
According to the assets declared by Jayalalithaa in April 2015, the gold kept in Karnataka state treasury is 21.28 kg.
However, Karnataka¡¯s director of treasuries C Jyothi told ET, ¡°We are not aware of the contents in the deposit. Such deposits are made with us by various courts. We would have given them an annexure to fill and assign them a number. When the deposit has to be redeemed, the person concerned will bring the annexure and against that number we return what they have left with us. The Jayalalithaa case is also a number and only the court officer who made the deposit will know anything about it.¡±
AFP
Former advocate general BV Acharya, who is fighting Karnataka¡¯s case against Jayalalithaa in the Supreme Court,told ET that the gold jewellery was with the Tamil Nadu treasury till about 2004. ¡°The disproportionate assets case was transferred to Karnataka under the Supreme Court¡¯s directive only in 2002. Now that gold and all her assets that are considered disproportionate to her known sources of income, will have to await the outcome of the case,¡± he said.
