This Article is From Oct 08, 2014

Indian Court Denies Bail to Politician Appealing Corruption Conviction

Indian Court Denies Bail to Politician Appealing Corruption Conviction

File photo of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

New Delhi: A high court judge refused Tuesday to grant bail to Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the longtime chief minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, noting in his ruling that India's Supreme Court was taking a tougher view of corruption, interpreting it as "a violation of human rights."

Jayaram, an enormously popular leader, was sentenced last month to four years in prison on charges she illegally enriched herself in the first of her three terms as chief minister. Her lawyers had argued for her sentence to be suspended pending her appeal.

Jayaram's conviction shook her political organization and cast her followers, who call her Amma, or Mother, into despair, with some going on hunger strikes or shaving their heads in a sign of mourning.

The police also attributed a number of suicides, including by poisoning and self-immolation, to distress over the verdict.

Though the trial was moved to the neighboring state of Karnataka, a crowd of supporters from Tamil Nadu has been camping since late September outside the prison where Jayaram is being held. The crowd erupted in celebration Tuesday, setting off firecrackers and distributing sweets, when the prosecutor in the case told the Karnataka High Court that he had no objection to granting her bail.

The jubilation was doused abruptly when the judge refused to do so.

"The honorable Supreme Court has held that corruption violates human rights," the judge, AV Chandrashekara, wrote in his ruling. "It is further held that systematic corruption is violation of human rights as it leads to economic crisis."

The decision went on to say the court had been "adding new dimension to the approach to be adopted towards the public servants involved in cases of corruption."

O Panneerselvam, a lieutenant of Jayaram's who stepped in as chief minister, appealed to party members to refrain from public disturbances. "Do not indulge in closure and strike - Jayalalithaa doesn't like these," he said in a statement, according to NDTV, a news channel. "Keeping calm is the only way to express love for Jayalalithaa."
© 2014, The New York Times News Service
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