Charges were, however, framed against the remaining nine accused, which included the then PWD minister S Kannappan. Jayalalitha and Nedunchezhian were named accused in the coal import case.

In his 35-page order, Special Court-II Judge V Radhakrishnan observed that "since the prosecution had not placed any material or substantiated its case that Jayalalitha and Nedunchezhian approved the (coal import) proposal with the knowledge of the objections raised by the then PWD secretary Sundaram, I am to hold that the charges against them are groundless and they should be discharged under Section 239 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). It is not acase of missing links but a case of no links. In fact, there is nothing to connect them with the criminal conspiracy," the Judge said.

The dramatic discharge came two minutes after Jayalalitha took her seat as an accused in Special Court-II, when the Judge announced that they (Jayalalitha and Nedunchezhian) were discharged. The discharge order said that "as far as Jayalalitha and Nedunchezhian are concerned, their case stands on a different footing".

The specific case of the prosecution is that the two had "with the knowledge of the objections (to the coal import) raised by Sundaram and without taking into consideration or adverting to the objections, signed and issued a GO to place orders for purchasing coal from five foreign suppliers".

The Judge held that "the court cannot presume or assume that the entire file including the missing pages (which contained Sundaram's objections) were placed before Jayalalitha and Nedunchezhian particularly in the light of the fact that these missing pages werereceived from the office of Kannappan on directions from the then chief secretary T V Venkataraman."

The news was received with clapping of hands by the defence lawyers. Later, amid chanting of slogans by advocates hailing their puratchi thalaivi (revolutionary leader), a beaming Jayalalitha told the media, "I have been vindicated. This is only the beginning. The situation is changing now." Asked if the DMK Government was speeding up the corruption cases against her, she said, "It is obvious. Time and again I have been saying that the cases are foisted against me."

At the AIADMK party office in Royapettah, jubilant partymen burst crackers to welcome their leader's "victory".