By itself, disproportionate assets not crime: SC

New Delhi: Mere possession of assets disproportionate to known sources of income is not an offence and a person can be held guilty only if it is proved that the assets were acquired through illegal means, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.

"Disproportionate assets per se is not a crime. If it is proved that some of the income is not proven, then only the offence is complete, otherwise, it will be an inference only," a bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said while hearing an appeal against the acquittal of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa in a Rs 67 crore disproportionate assets case.

The Karnataka government, which challenged the acquittal, told the bench that the high court verdict was "perverse" as it "committed error" in calculating the CM's assets. It said the assets, expenditure and income of the accused was considered jointly and they couldn't make out a case for separate assessement now. The bench said, "Suppose you prove all the accused are together and it is the same money of accused No.1 (Jayalalithaa) which was being circulated, does it lead to conviction? Will it mean the money...was from income obtained from unknown sources?"