A quarter of a century ago, former AIADMK veteran leader K.A. Sengottaiyan, who joined actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam on Thursday (November 27, 2025), stood disqualified from contesting elections.
In the year 2000, the former Transport Minister was convicted in two different corruption cases and sentenced to jail attracting disqualification from contesting polls under the Representation of People Act.
Mr. Sengottaiyan had served as Minister for Transport in Jayalalithaa’s first Cabinet (1991-96). Soon after the AIADMK faced a rout in the 1996 Assembly elections, the M. Karunanidhi government had registered multiple corruption cases against the former Chief Minister, some of her erstwhile Cabinet colleagues, their family members and bureaucrats.
The CB-CID registered cases against Mr. Sengottaiyan, his personal assistant and officials, under the Prevention of Corruption Act accusing them of causing wrongful loss to the Jeeva Transport Corporation (JTC), Anna Transport Corporation (ATC) and J Jayalalithaa Transport Corporation (JJTC, later renamed Rajiv Gandhi Transport Corporation). They were accused of conspiring and deriving pecuniary advantage in the procurement of bus spare parts, printing of tickets and bus body building.
On October 3 that year, Mr. Sengottaiyan was arrested by the CB-CID in the ATC corruption case. He was the fourth former Minister to be held on corruption charges after Indira Kumari, T.M. Selvaganapathy and K.P. Krishnan. He was remanded in the Salem Central Prison. Subsequently, he was arrested in the JTC and JJTC cases. He secured bail in January 2007.
Later, the government constituted three Special Courts in Chennai to exclusively try the 46 corruption cases related to the 1991-96 Jayalalithaa government. Mr. Sengottaiyan’s cases were transferred here and charges were framed against him.
Mr. Sengottaiyan took the defence that the cases were foisted on him due to political vendetta. “The Chief Minister (Karunanidhi) had been attempting to distance him from the AIADMK as he played a vital role in protecting Ms. Jayalalitha, the then Leader of the Opposition, from being physically attacked in the Assembly and also as he was staunch pillar of support for his party leader in Coimbatore and Erode districts,” The Hindu reported in July 2000 citing his defence in the ATC scam.
On August 4, 2000, Mr. Sengottaiyan and the co-accused were convicted in the JTC scam and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for four years. He was also directed to pay a fine of ₹1.05 lakh. “In the 195-page order, the Special Judge-I, Mr. A.C. Arumugaperumal Adityan, found the three guilty and sentenced them under various provisions of PCA and IPC. The convicted were later lodged in the Central Prison, Vellore. Mr. Sengottaiyan, is the fourth member of the previous AIADMK cabinet, besides the former Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalitha, to be convicted and sentenced by Special Courts set up to try cases registered under PCA,” The Hindu reported.
Four months later, Mr. Sengottaiyan was convicted in the ATC case and sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment by Special Judge-II S.S.P. Darwesh.
On account of his conviction in these two cases, Mr. Sengottaiyan could not contest in the 2001 Assembly elections, in which the AIADMK was voted back to power. Jayalalithaa herself stood disqualified from contesting in the election on account of her conviction in the TANSI land deal cases.
In April 2002, Mr. Sengottaiyan was acquitted in the JJTC case by the Special Court. Subsequently, in February 2005, the Madras High Court set aside his convictions in the ATC and JTC cases. In the 2006 Assembly elections, he won for the fifth time from the Gobichettipalayam constituency, though the AIADMK lost power.
The Karunanidhi Government then moved the Supreme Court challenging Mr. Sengottaiyan’s acquittal in the two cases. However, in November 2006, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with the judgement solely on account of delay in filing the appeal.
“To a question from the Bench about the reason for the delay in filing the appeal, senior counsel Altaf Ahmad, appearing for the State, said it was filed after the new government assumed office in this May,” a report in The Hindu said. The Bench told the counsel “change of political climate cannot be cited as a reason for the delay. You can’t go by that logic. State is a State. This happens to bureaucrats who can’t act independently [to go on appeal]. The appeal is being dismissed only on the ground of delay.”
In 2011, Jayalalithaa returned as Chief Minister and inducted Mr. Sengottaiyan as a Minister in a Cabinet. She later sacked him. Thereafter, he returned as Minister only in the Edappadi K. Palaswami Cabinet in February 2017.
Published – November 27, 2025 09:51 pm IST
