Chennai sources have stated that the Madras High Court today upheld a CBI court order convicting son-in-law and daughter of jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala's sister in an Rs 1.68 crore disproportionate assets (DA) case registered two decades ago. Meanwhile Justice G Jayachandran dismissed appeals filed by S R Baskaran, a Reserve Bank of India employee, and his wife B Sreedaladevi challenging the Special CBI court order of August 26, 2008, convicting and sentencing them.
Moreover Sreedaladevi is the daughter of B Vanithamani, sister of Sasikala, who is serving a four-year jail term in a wealth case. Deposed AIADMK deputy general secretary T T V Dhinakaran is Sreedaladevi's brother. Earlier the CBI had registered a case in November, 1997, against Baskaran and Sreedaladevi and conducted searches against them at various places, during which the investigating agency seized movable and immovable assets including 80 gold bars from a bank locker.
Accordingly the agency had charged Baskaran with
amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, to the extent
of Rs 1,68,54,305, which stood in the name of his wife. Currently the trial
court held them guilty for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and
Indian Penal Code sections, and sentenced Baskaran to undergo rigorous
imprisonment for five years and his wife to three years, besides imposing a
fine of Rs 20 lakh and Rs 10 lakh on them respectively.
