Indian court convicts powerful politician and former film star of corruption
Veteran politician and former film star Jayalalithaa Jayaram convicted of corruption in case that first began in 1997
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 27 September, 2014, 8:34pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 28 September, 2014, 3:54am
Agence France-Presse in Bangalore
Jayalalithaa Jayaram greets her party supporters while standing on the balcony of her residence in Chennai in this file picture from May 2011
Violence broke out in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu after Jayalalithaa Jayaram, a former film star who became one of the country's most colourful and controversial politicians, was jailed in a corruption case that has run for nearly two decades.
The chief minister of the prosperous southern state of Tamil Nadu was taken into custody after a judge in the southern city of Bangalore found her guilty of amassing illegal wealth and sentenced her to four years in jail.
It was an extraordinary transformation of fortune for the 66-year-old politician who enjoys huge popularity in Tamil Nadu, where fans know her simply as "Amma" (Mother), and ministers have been known to prostrate themselves before her.
Her AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) party emerged as the third biggest force in the national parliament after winning 37 of the 39 parliamentary seats in the state in this year's general election.
After the ruling, supporters of her party burned buses in some parts of the state, causing several businesses to close their shutters. They also clashed with supporters of Tamil Nadu's main opposition party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, or DMK.
Jayalalithaa has always dismissed the corruption charge, first brought by a rival politician in 1996, as politically motivated. She was charged in 1997, when police seized assets including 28kg of gold, 750 pairs of shoes and more than 10,000 saris in a raid on her home in the state capital Chennai.
Prosecutors said her assets, which reportedly included two 1,000-acre estates in the lush tropical state she ran, were vastly disproportionate to her earnings during her first term as chief minister, which ran from 1991 to 1996.
Public prosecutor G. Bhavani Singh said Jayalalithaa was guilty of "amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of her income". He said she was not eligible to apply for bail due to the length of her sentence.
The ruling means she will be automatically disqualified from parliament in accordance with a Supreme Court order last year that lawmakers should be ejected from office if sentenced to more than three years in jail.
