NEW DELHI: Southern India’s powerful politician Jayaram Jayalalitha was released on bail Saturday, 22 days after she was convicted of corruption and sentenced to four years behind bars.
She was taken by car from the Bengaluru prison to her home in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, where she has been ordered to remain at home while on bail. She arrived to a grand homecoming with scores of avid supporters turning up to welcome her despite heavy downpour.
The 66-year-old former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister stepped out of Parappana Agrahara Central Prison at Bangalore after completion of all formalities, with the Special Court Judge John Michael D’ Cunha issuing the release order.
The release order by the Special Court came after a bond for Rs20 million (Dh1.2 million) and surety on assets for more than Rs10 million was furnished for Jayalalitha. The copy of the Supreme Court order was also produced by her lawyers.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted her bail, after she argued that she needed medical attention for diabetes and high blood pressure. She has also asked a lower court to suspend her sentence while she appeals her conviction.
The court warned it would cancel her bail unless she provided all documents related to the corruption case by December 18, and said it expected her to maintain calm among her supporters.
“I request all to maintain peace, law and order,” she said in a statement. “I appeal to my beloved Tamils, my supporters and my party men not to criticise judgements or the judges who delivered them or the court proceedings.“
Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala and her relatives Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, who also fulfilled similar conditions, also walked out of jail.
Sasikala and Elavarasi were in Jayalalithaa’s car, while Sudhakaran, disowned son of AIADMK chief, was in another vehicle.
Amid massive security, Jayalalithaa came out of prison and was greeted by hundreds of AIADMK supporters who had gathered at several points en route a kilometre away from jail to the HAL airport. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Pannerselvam, several ministers, MPs and legislators received her near the prison.
A smiling Jayalalithaa waved at her frenzied supporters holding her photos and flowers which they showered on her car as her motorcade passed on way to the airport from where she flew back to Chennai by a charter flight.
At Chennai, where security was stepped up ahead of Jayalalithaa’s arrival, slogan-shouting men and women AIADMK supporters thronged the airport as well as Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence, hailing their ‘Puratchi Thalaivi’ (Revolutionary Leader) who was released on bail after spending 21 days in the prison in the Rs660 million (Dh39.47million) disproportionate assets case since September 27, 2014.
A smiling Jayalalithaa waved back at her celebrating supporters. Jayalalitha was forced to step down as the highest elected official in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, after a Bengaluru court last month found her guilty of possessing wealth disproportionate to her income.
Cases move so slowly through India’s overburdened judicial system that decades may go without a verdict.
Jayalalitha joined politics in the early 1980s after a successful film career in southern India that included appearances in nearly 150 movies. She has had three stints as chief minister of Tamil Nadu, including her latest one, which began in May 2011.
