[Breaking]:#DA case: Supreme Court overturns Karnataka HC verdict, Sasikala & Ors to surrender before trial court (Read judgment)

In a decision that could make a huge impact on the current political scenario in Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court today overturned the Karnataka High Court verdict in the Disproportionate Assets case..A Bench of Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy restored the trial court verdict in toto, thereby holding Sasikala and the other accused guilty..All the accused have been directed to surrender forthwith before the trial court. The trial court had imposed four years in jail for all accused. Sasikala and other accused will now be taken into custody to serve the remaining part of the sentence..Justice Roy delivered a separate, concurring judgment..The Court in its judgment held that the percentage of disproportionate assets calculated by the High Court at 8.12 per cent was based on wrong reading of evidence. Further, it held that the same was compounded by incorrect arithmetical calculations..“We have considered the facts of this case and in our opinion, the percentage of disproportionate assets as 8.12% as computed by the High Court is based on completely wrong reading of the evidence on record compounded by incorrect arithmetical calculations, as referred to herinabove. In view of the regnant evidence on record, unassailably proving the disproportionateness of the assets, as contemplated in Section 13(1)(e) of 1988 Act, it is inessential as well to resort to any arithmetic to compute the percentage thereof. In any view of this matter, the decision of this Court in Krishnanand Agnihotri (supra) has no application in the facts of this case and therefore, the respondents cannot avail any benefit therefrom.”.The Court, therefore, set aside the judgment of the High Court and restored the trial court verdict in toto..The appeal against Jayalalithaa stood abated due to her death..The case was an appeal filed by the state of Karnataka challenging the verdict of the Karnataka High Court acquitting Jayalalithaa and other accused. The Court had reserved its verdict on June 7, 2016, after the final hearing in the case, which had commenced on February 23..Senior Advocates Dushyant Dave and BV Acharya had appeared for the State of Karnataka. Justice L Nageswara Rao, then a Senior Advocate, had appeared for Jayalalithaa. Senior Advocate Shekhar Naphade and B Kumar had appeared for other accused..Senior Advocate TR Andhyarujina and Vikas Singh had appeared for DMK leader K Anbazhagan while, Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram had represented six companies whose properties were attached pursuant to an order of 1997 on the ground that Jayalalithaa had stake in them..The legal proceedings in the case began in 1996 when Subramanian Swamy lodged an FIR before Principal Sessions Judge, Madras. It triggered a battle which lasted for over two decades..Read a detailed timeline of the case here..Read the judgment: