16 die as TN reels under Jayalalithaa verdict

At least 16 people committed suicide or died of cardiac arrest across Tamil Nadu after a special court in Bangalore convicted AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa in the 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case on Saturday and sentenced her to four years in prison.  Two people have also been hospitalised with severe burns.

Jayalalithaa’s aide Sasikala, her relatives V.N Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi also approached the High Court, seeking bail.
Senior Supreme Court advocate Ram Jethmalani will represent Jayalalithaa with the defence team. Earlier on Sunday, the legal team discussed options to get the sentence suspended and the conviction stayed, party sources said.
Legal experts say a stay on the conviction is deemed necessary to get her disqualification suspended. While the Supreme Court has said in many cases that the appellate court has the power to suspend both the sentence and conviction, it laid down in 2001 that when a public servant has been convicted of corruption, the conviction should not be stayed during the pendency of an appeal.
Since the High Court was on vacation, the application may be taken up by a vacation bench on Tuesday.
(The Hindu)