Jayalalithaa will stay in jail for sometime, bail plea adjourned till October 7

Chennai: The AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa will continue to stay in jail after the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday adjourned the former Tamil Nadu chief minister's bail plea till October 7.

The decision has triggered protests by lawyers in Tamil Nadu who have now requested the Chief Justice of India to intervene and ensure an earlier hearing for bail. The state film industry also organised a day-long strike on Tuesday in solidarity with Jayalalithaa, also a former actor.

The 66-year-old leader was sentenced to four years in prison and fined Rs.100 crore in a 18-year-old corruption case involving assets worth over Rs.66 crore disproportionate to her known sources of income. In her appeal, Jayalalithaa has pleaded for suspension of the conviction and the sentence, and has also refused to pay the Rs.100 crore fine.

Earlier on Tuesday, after the vacation bench of the Karnataka High Court adjourned the bail plea to October 6, Jayalalithaa's leaders headed by Ram Jethmalani approached the court Registrar for an urgent hearing in the matter. Chief Justice Justice D H Waghela allowed the plea following which the court heard the petition on Wednesday.

In her petitions seeking immediate bail and challenging her sentence, Jayalalithaa has maintained that the charges of amassing wealth against her were false and that she had acquired property through legal means.

Jayalalithaa has also contended that the trial court has overlooked several judgements and has not considered the binding nature of various income tax orders and decisions of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which had accepted the income and the level of expenditure pleaded by her.

The pleas of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's aide Sasikala, her relatives V N Sudhakaran, disowned son of the former Chief Minister, and Ilavarasi, who have also moved the High Court seeking bail and challenging their conviction, were also posted for hearing on October 6.