BENGALURU: The Special Court hearing the disproportionate assets case involving former Tamil Nadu CM late J Jayalalithaa on Monday, has fixed the date to return the valuables including gold and diamond jewels seized in connection with the case.
The court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to depute the authorised officers on March 6 and 7 to take over the valuables.
Judge HA Mohan passed the order. The TN government, after the order passed on the last date of hearing, had authorised Principal Secretary of the Home Department and Inspector General of Police (IGP), Vigilance, to complete the formalities in compliance with the court order and take the valuables back to Tamil Nadu.
The court also instructed them to bring six trunks to take the valuables safely and asked the two authorised officials to come with a photographer and a videographer to record the handover.
This apart, considering the seriousness of the issue, the court has instructed the officials concerned, to deploy adequate security personnel to ensure the smooth transfer of the valuables. Meanwhile, the Special Public Prosecutor informed the court that the Tamil Nadu government is yet to comply with the order passed for payment of Rs 5 crore to the Karnataka government to bear the expenses for conducting the trial in the disproportionate assets case. Further hearing will be held on March 6. The trial in the disproportionate assets case was held in Karnataka on the direction of the Supreme Court and therefore all material evidence are in Karnataka.
The Special Court convicted Jayalalithaa and others in 2014 and the same was set aside by the Karnataka HC in 2015. It was set aside by the Supreme Court in 2017 and confirmed the special court’s judgment, abating Jayalalithaa as she had passed away by then.
Valuables worth crores
The seized valuables, worth crores of rupees, included 7,040 grams of 468 types of gold and diamond jewellery, 700Kg silver jewellery, 11,344 silk sarees, 740 expensive slippers, 250 shawls, 12 refrigerators, 10 TV sets, eight VCRs, one video camera, 4 CD players, 2 audio decks, 24 two-in-one tape recorders, 1,040 video cassettes, three iron lockers and ` 1,93,202 cash.