Give details on disposing of Jayalalithaa’s seized assets, Bengaluru court tells PIO

A civil court here has set aside an order of the public information officer (PIO) who had refused to share information on disposing of the immovable assets of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

RTI activist T Narasimhamurthy had sought information on the Special Court’s directions regarding the auctioning of the assets that were seized on December 11, 1996 from Jayalalithaa’s residence in Chennai.

The disproportionate assets case against her and others was transferred to Karnataka by the Supreme Court in 2003 and the seized assets including sarees, shawls and footwear were shifted to Bengaluru.

The Special Court here held Jayalalithaa and the other accused in the case as guilty in 2014. The material evidence in the case is still under custody.

Narasimhamurthy had sought auctioning of the assets.

The PIO had refused to provide him information regarding what the Special Court had ordered about disposing of the assets. He then approached the Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge, which is also the First Appellate Authority for the RTI cases. The civil court recently directed the PIO to provide him with the information including the final order of the Special Court and also the communication of the court to the government to appoint a special prosecutor to dispose of the properties.