Chennai: In a relief to AIADMK supreme Jayalalithaa, a court here on Thursday discharged her from an 18-year old income tax return case, allowing withdrawal of prosecution by the I-T department consequent to acceptance of her compounding pleas by it.
A total of four cases against Jayalalithaa, her aide Sasikala and a firm in which they are partners were "dismissed as withdrawn from prosecution" by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R Dakshinamurthy.
"Orders passed by the Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) (on compouding) is perused. The case against the accused is dismissed as withdrawn from prosectuion under 321 Cr Pc. The accused are discharged," he said citing a plea seeking nod for withdrawal of prosecution.
Section 321 of CrPc allows withdrawal from prosecution by the Public Prosecutor with the consent of the court at any time before the judgment is pronounced.
The cases were filed against Jayalalithaa and others in 1996 and 1997 for not filing income tax returns in their individual capacities and as partners of Sasi Enterprises.
Earlier in the day, Senior Special Public Prosecutor for I-T department K Ramasamy sought the court's consent "to withdraw prosecution and not to pursue prosecution proceedings further" as the alleged offences were compounded under the Income Tax Act.
Defence counsel J Karuppiah informed the court that final orders had been passed by the tax authorities and compounding fee paid by the accused.
The Special Bench has been set up after the Supreme Court on December 18 last directed the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court to constitute it to decide Jayalalithaa's plea within three months.
Anbazhagan had on January 6 filed a petition before the special bench, seeking removal of SPP in the case, alleging he was "sailing" with the accused.
He had also submitted that he had intervened before the appropriate courts at all stages of the trial "to ensure that justice is not derailed by powerful persons" who were tried for serious corruption charges.
However, objecting to Anbazhagan seeking removal of Singh by filing a memo before him, Justice Kumaraswamy had yesterday warned him of action for contempt of court for disturbing court proceedings and asked him to get an order from the high court.
"...my job is only to hear the appeals filed by Jayalalithaa and three others challenging their conviction," he had said.
A Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, had ordered that the hearing in the High Court on the appeal, filed by Jayalalithaa challenging her conviction and sentence in the case, be conducted on a day-to-day basis.
On October 17 last year, the apex court had granted conditional bail to Jayalalithaa, who was sent to jail by a trial court on Sept 27, saying that hearing on her appeal against conviction in the High Court should be completed in three months from December 18.
The trial court had held Jayalalithaa and three others guilty of corruption and awarded four years jail term and also slapped a fine of Rs 100 crore on her.
