Jayalalithaa assets case: Court took into account A R Rahman's statement

CHENNAI: Music maestro A R Rahman, child prodigy Mandolin Srinivas, who died last month, and music director Gangai Amaran - these three are among several popular personalities whose depositions were also taken into account by special court judge John Michael Cunha while convicting AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case last Saturday.

Rahman and Srinivas said in court they performed at the wedding of Jayalalithaa's foster son (later disowned) V N Sudhakaran, a co-accused in the Rs 66.65-crore disproportionate assets case, free of cost and accepted invitations accompanied by silver and silk. Music director and screenplay writer Gangai Amaran (Ilayaraja's younger brother) said he 'sold' his 22-acre farmhouse at Payyanur on Old Mahabalipuram Road to Sasikala, who told him "Amma likes your farmhouse", in 1994.

Cunha said the statements of Rahman and Srinivas are relevant to the prosecution's claims that several hundred silver plates and silk saris/dhotis were procured to be given to VIPs while inviting them for the wedding.

"Their evidence, in my view, deserves full acceptance. Both these witnesses are independent witnesses. They are men of repute and professionals, whose presence at the venue and the rendition of concerts during the marriage is corroborated by number of witnesses...Thus, there is reliable material to hold that during the occasion silver plates, silk sari/dhoti and kumkum box were presented to VIPs," said Cunha.

Through Gangai Amaran's statement, however, the court gained insight into the modus operandi of the accused in buying properties that impressed them during the check period of 1991-96.

Amaran, in his evidence, said he purchased nearly 22 acres in Payyanur bit by bit, and built a small farmhouse. He said Baskaran, son of Sasikalaa's sister Vanitha, took him to Poes Garden to meet Jayalalithaa. There he met Sasikalaa, who told him that the chief minister visited the Payyanur land and liked it very much, and that she was very much interested to buy it. Amaran said the house was very useful for music composing and story writing, and that he did not want to sell it. Thereafter, Sudhakaran talked to him daily over phone or came to his house. His family members were not willing to sell the land. At last, they decided to sell it. Sudhakaran and some officers came to his house and got his signature and the signature of his wife on October 1, 1994. They gave two demand drafts for Rs 13.1 lakh, he said.

Citing this, Cunha said: "There is not even a remote mention about the existence of any building," and hence the contention that structures standing in the property existed prior to check period cannot be accepted. "The documents relied on by the accused also do not establish the existence of the buildings prior to the check period," he said.