Chapter 342 Pass

Jayalalithaa's political opponents, the DMK, first attacked her personal assets.

This will most likely hit Jayalalithaa's personal reputation and greatly reduce her image as "Grandma".

Didn't you only get one rupee as salary? Didn't you say you dedicated all you had to Tamil Nadu?

Well, the Anti-Corruption Bureau is investigating your personal assets. If you're truly innocent, then there's nothing to worry about.

But how could Jayalalithaa remain indifferent? She has been busy filing writ petitions in the High Court for the last two months to fight the charges against her.

She questioned the validity of the indictments approved by the current chief minister, saying many of the events dated back five years and were difficult to reconstruct.

She wrote petition after petition, but the High Court rejected them.

This case has caused a lot of uproar, and the court is unlikely to let it go so easily.

Of course, Jayalalithaa did use her connections to exonerate herself, but the judge who made the biased decision was soon kicked out of the review team.

A new emperor appoints new ministers, and everyone knows which side to take.

The state police, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Central Investigation Bureau quickly began investigating the allegations against Jayalalithaa.

The search of her residence was the breaking point of the entire news case, and Poom TV station filmed and broadcast the entire process live.

Ron also witnessed this scene on TV, and he had to admit that he was also shocked by Jayalalithaa's luxury.

Police seized 28 kg of jewelry, 91 luxury watches, more than 10,000 saris, 750 pairs of shoes, 30 kg of gold, 400 pairs of bracelets, and 500 kg of silver from her several residences.

Ron lamented, with so many clothes and jewelry, how could she wear them all?

If you buy one piece a day, it will take several years to try out all the clothes.

"What does your aunt do with so much gold and silver at home?" he couldn't help but complain.

"Those are all jewellery. How can an Indian woman be without jewellery?" Kavya argued.

"What about these?" Ron pointed at the TV again.

It is revealing Jayalalithaa's assets, which include 77 properties in Madras alone and 1,000 acres of land in different parts of Tamil Nadu.

There are many other estates, farmhouses, and tea gardens, some of which are even located in foreign countries.

Of course, these are not owned by Jayalalithaa alone; her godson and female assistant are also on the list.

Everyone knows that these two people have a close relationship with her, almost like white gloves.

"It's all that Dharam. He must have amassed this wealth through various means without my aunt's knowledge." Kavya insisted.

"No matter where these assets came from, your aunt is in trouble now." Ron sighed.

According to information released by the police, Jayalalithaa has assets worth 670 million rupees.

Before she became the Chief Minister, her assets were only over Rs 20 million according to public disclosures.

Throughout her career, her personal wealth has increased almost thirtyfold.

In any case, her claim of a one-rupee salary is self-defeating and even shoots herself in the foot.

Sure enough, after the report spread, the media in Tamil Nadu were all criticizing Jayalalithaa.

However, there were people who defended her reputation. Many voters spontaneously organized themselves and openly supported Jayalalithaa on the streets.

There are quite a few people, several thousand.

Chanting the name of "Amma", they demanded that the court withdraw the case against Jayalalithaa.

There's no way, she gave too much.

These voters don’t care whether Jayalalithaa is corrupt or not. Does that matter in India?

They would even praise her for her cleverness and think she was capable.

Without “Ama”, who will give them things in the next election?

Look, this is a truly good official, with a deep bond between the officials and the people.

Well, Jayalalithaa was officially investigated.

More than 40 charges will be examined one by one, starting with the color television procurement case.

This accusation concerns the grand wedding last year, so naturally it attracted the most attention.

Sur Electric was asked to cooperate with the inspection, and Ron's name inevitably appeared in the newspapers.

However, he did not come forward. Sur Electric has the best legal team in India.

It's just a case worth a few hundred million rupees, so there's no need for him to get involved.

As Ron said before, Soul Electric did not do anything illegal. They sold televisions at normal prices, generally below market price.

If Durham forged the invoices, that was his business. Soul Electric's accounts were clear and the bank records matched.

Without any hesitation, Ron threw the adopted son out.

Of course, the other party denied everything and even exposed the incident at the port.

This played into the hands of the DMK, which had long been eyeing the Ennore Port tender.

In addition, they deliberately misled the public by comparing this year's TV prices with last year's purchase prices.

In 1996, the prices of televisions in India generally began to drop, including those of Sur Electric.

The fundamental reason is that several competitors have begun to achieve localized production, and the cost of televisions has plummeted.

Last year, Sur sold color TVs for 15,000 rupees, but this year the price has dropped to around 12,000, a one-fifth reduction.

Brands like Onida and Videocon are mostly priced around Rs 13,000, and the gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller.

Looking at last year's purchases with this year's prices, of course they seem abnormally expensive.

But Ron is not a pushover either. He also has his own TV station and radio station.

Areas outside South India simply downplayed the incident, but broadcasts targeting Tamil Nadu naturally gave a clear analysis of the matter.

The Times of India's bureau here also dissected the television procurement case thoroughly.

There is nothing wrong with Sur Electric Appliances. Jayalalithaa chose this brand entirely based on cost-effectiveness.

Ron had to pay attention to public opinion, after all, Sur Electric had a large factory here.

He also almost immediately ordered Sun TV to open a branch in Tamil Nadu.

He tore up the agreement with Ma Lan. In this case, that guy always led public opinion in a direction that was unfavorable to Suer Electric Appliances.

In that case, Ron had no reason to be polite. He wanted the television station market in the four southern states.

Today's Sun TV is no longer the fledgling TV station it was a year ago.

But that’s a story for later. The most important thing at the moment is to settle the port bidding issue.

If there is a problem, it is that the transaction price is indeed too low. After all, Adani spent 20 million US dollars to purchase the Mundra Port.

Ron only spent half of what the other party did, which made it hard not to be suspicious.

Fortunately, there are some differences between Ennore Port and Mundra, the biggest difference being the size of the land.

Adani has great ambitions. The Mundra Port he purchased not only includes the terminal but also a large piece of industrial land.

He plans to build a multifunctional port integrating ports and industrial parks, with complete facilities and a large area.

Because Ennore Port is a privatized military port, most of the surrounding facilities and land have already been built and there is no industrial land.

It is just a port and does not include park development.

By that calculation, 10 million US dollars is barely acceptable.

The matter then entered a stage of wrangling, with Sur Port insisting that it had not violated any regulations and had not engaged in any insider trading.

Indeed, the Anti-Corruption Bureau did not find any financial transactions between the Sur Group and Jayalalithaa's former ruling team.

Are you kidding? Ron is treated as nephew-in-law by "Grandma". Is there any need for bribery between family members?

Their relationship is incredibly clean, as there really isn't any money involved.

With "Ama" around, Ron didn't even have to take care of other officials in Tamil Nadu at that time.

On the other hand, Ron's Soul Electric has done a lot of good things here.

The baby cradle program and the school lunch program, many of these donations are still ongoing today.

According to recorded data, one hundred thousand baby girls have benefited from the support and subsidy policies of Sur Electric Appliances.

Deposits are regularly deposited into the adopted children's accounts every month, and when they turn 18, they will have a deposit of 20,000 rupees to help them enter society.

All these things were uncovered, and when the Anti-Corruption Bureau investigated, it was found that not only did Sur Electric not withhold donations, but it also honestly implemented the implementation every time.

What kind of philanthropist is this? You're saying the owner of this kind of company is engaging in insider trading?

The people of Tamil Nadu are the first to disagree!

There is no way, there is no Indian official who is not corrupt.

The people have seen all kinds of hellish cases, and they don't actually have too high expectations of local officials and businessmen, as long as they don't go too far.

Frankly, everyone was a little uncomfortable with the sudden appearance of such a good person. Even the Anti-Corruption Bureau had to confirm the data again and again before releasing it.

There is nothing more to say at this point. The people of Tamil Nadu simply do not believe that there is any interest transfer relationship in Ennore Port.

The DMK also stopped its movement, with Chief Minister Karunanidhi asking his subordinates not to continue confronting Ron on this matter.

The reason is simple. Sur Electric has a factory here with tens of thousands of employees, and Ennoer Port will be put into use next year.

What does that mean? Votes and taxes.

Of course, more importantly, this concerns the economic development and social stability of Tamil Nadu.

The scale of Ron's business is so large that it can affect the economic structure of a country.

We can no longer view him as an ordinary businessman. He deserves the titles of big entrepreneur, industrialist, and business leader.

After this incident, Jayalalithaa's case will no longer have anything to do with Ron.

He heaved a sigh of relief, and Kavya felt relieved as well.

In any case, the smooth passage of the television procurement case and the port bid award also reduced two charges against Jayalalithaa.

Don't underestimate these two charges, especially the TV purchase case, which is directly related to the grand wedding last year.

Jayalalithaa can give a reasonable explanation on this matter, at least to make people less angry.

I can only work hard with my son Dharam. Well, Jayalalithaa has already cut off ties with him.

As a politician, she knew what to choose. Not to mention that the guy had indeed embezzled a lot of money without telling her, which made Jayalalithaa see his true colors.

The other charges will be tried slowly and will probably take a long time, perhaps even several years.

Ron is preparing to return to Mumbai. It has been more than half a year since he left at the end of last year.

Many things are still waiting for him to make a decision, and he can't always be drifting around.

(End of this chapter)