New Delhi: Yesterday, on Wednesday, the honourable Supreme Court opined that the acquiring of the assets per se is ‘not’ a crime, however, if such assets are acquired from the sources proved illegal, then it is a ‘crime’. The said observation is made while hearing the wealth case which is involving the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State- J Jayalalithaa.
In the concerned case of wealth, besides the TN Chief Minister, the others namely, N. Sasikala, J. Elavarasi, V. N. Sudhakaran were also involved in the criminal conspiracy charges along with charges of abetment and possession of disproportionate assets. The matter is pending before the bench of the Apex Court, comprising of Justice- P. C. Ghose and Justice- Amitava Roy.
The bench also observed here, yesterday that the “Disproportionate assets is not a crime. It is only a crime if it is proved that the source of the money is illegal.” Ms. Jayalalithaa while defending herself said that there was no basis for alleging that the five concerned companies’ held properties were “for and on behold of Ms. Jayalalithaa”. However, the prosecutor’s side responded and said that Ms. Jayalalithaa cannot at this point, in the Supreme Court, distance herself from her co- accused and their assets. However, court desired to know the legality of the sources, from which the assets acquired.
Adv. Faim Khalilkhan Pathan