New Delhi, Feb. 6 : A PIL was moved in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking to restrain AIADMK leader V K Sasikala from being sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister on Tuesday on the ground that the apex court was likely to pronounce within a week the judgment in a corruption case in which she and late CM J Jayalalithaa were accused.
The PIL was filed by Chennai resident Senthil Kumar, general secretary of NGO Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, hours after the apex court indicated it could deliver its judgment on the appeals challenging the acquittal of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala in a 19-year-old disproportionate assets case.
The petition is likely to be heard on Tuesday morning. Kumar, who mentioned in the plea that he will argue the matter in person, sought a stay on Sasikala’s swearing in tomorrow, contending that if she was convicted and forced to resign, there was a possibility of riots erupting all over Tamil Nadu.
He said law and order may worsen in such an eventuality as the state was already facing a “desperate situation” due to cyclone, demonetization and death of Jayalalithaa.
The petitioner claimed in case the appeal against her acquittal results in conviction, the AIADMK workers may once again protest and disturb the normal life of Tamil Nadu.
The petitioner said he filed the plea in the interest of people of Tamil Nadu and to maintain the peace in the state. After Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5, 2016, Sasikala, who was her shadow for nearly three decades, was elected General Secretary of AIADMK on December 29 and elected leader of its legislature party yesterday. Jayalalitha along with her aides Sasikala Natarajan, V N Sudhakaran and J Elavarasi were booked under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC for amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income in 1997. The trial of the case was shifted by Supreme Court to Bengaluru on a petition filed by a DMK leader and the court there had convicted them on September 27, 2014.
