Mohammadi News Agency News – Features – Photo
MNA International Desk: India’s Supreme Court handed down a four-year prison sentence Tuesday to the incoming chief minister of Tamil Nadu for corruption in a ruling that prevents her from taking up her post, reported news agency.
VK Sasikala was found guilty of possessing ‘disproportionate assets’ in a long-running case that also involved her mentor Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the state’s former chief minister who died in December.
Sasikala was not present at the hearing in New Delhi but the court ordered that she immediately surrender to police to begin serving her sentence.
The panel also sentenced her nephew and niece to four years in prison after a lower court had earlier acquitted them of any wrongdoing.
Sasikala, a former video cassette saleswoman, had been anointed as Jayalalithaa’s successor by the state’s dominant All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and was due to be sworn in later this week.
But she has been involved in a bitter battle in recent weeks with the state’s acting chief minister, O Panneerselvam, who has been trying to block her ascent.
Tuesday’s verdict means the 59-year-old Sasikala is barred from running for any public office for a decade and Panneerselvam is now likely to stay at the helm of the prosperous southern state.
