Jayalalithaa's jewels to be handed over to TN govt in first week of March, says Karnataka court
Bengaluru (PTI): A special court here has said 27 kg of gold and diamond jewelry - part of the material evidence in the disproportionate assets case against former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa and others - would be handed over to the neighbouring state's government on March 6 and 7, paving the way for unlocking value of the assets to mobilise the Rs 100 crore fine imposed on her. While 20 kg could be sold or auctioned, the remaining was exempted by the Court on Monday considering the fact that the late Jayalalithaa inherited them from her mother.
Judge H A Mohan, presiding over the XXXII Additional City Civil & Sessions court, had last month directed the transfer of valuables seized from Jayalalithaa to the Tamil Nadu government.
The TN Government will then take necessary action on the disposal of these gold and diamond jewelery, it had said.
The trial was held in Karnataka on the direction of the Supreme Court and therefore all material evidence is in the Karnataka treasury now under the custody of the court.
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The court had earlier held that the kin of Jayalalithaa were not entitled for the properties which are confiscated by the State. The Special CBI Court had thus rejected the petition filed by J Deepa and J Deepak, the niece and nephew of Jayalalithaa, respectively.
Ordering the transfer of the jewels to the Tamil Nadu Government, the Special Court judge had said, "Instead of auctioning the jewels, it is better to transfer the same to Tamil Nadu by handing over the same through the Department of Home, State of Tamil Nadu."
The Court had then issued the direction that the Tamil Nadu Home Department to authorise "competent persons preferably in the rank of Secretary along with police to come and collect the jewels."
In the same order, the Special Court had ordered the payment of Rs five crore to Karnataka for the expenses of the trial conducted in the State. The payment will be made from a fixed deposit in an account related to Jayalalithaa in the State Bank of India branch in Chennai.
The disproportionate assets trial against Jayalalithaa, her former close aide V Sasikala, V N Sudhakaran, who is the disowned foster son of Jayalalithaa, and Sasikala's sister-in-law J Ilavarasi was conducted by the Special Court in Bengaluru, which convicted them nearly ten years ago.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
