Jaya Prada sentenced six months jail. Here’s why

Veteran actress and former Member of Parliament Jaya Prada has been sentenced jail for a period of six months and also levied a fine of Rs 5,000 in an old case in Chennai court.

According to sources, Prada’s business partners, Ram Kumar and Raja Babu were also found guilty in the case. Jaya Prada has been sentenced in the charges of not paying Employees State Insurance (ESI) to the employees working in the cinema owned by her in Chennai, years back.

The verdict by the court has been given against a petition that was filed by the workers of the theatre who complained that company of Jaya Prada had not paid their ESI amount. They also informed that the theatre has been closed for almost 10 years now and that the management was deducting ESI amount but did not pay the money to the state insurance corporation. When they were denied the dues, they had not option apart from moving the court.

At order to suspend the proceedings at the Egmore court, Jaya Prada and the three staff members who run the theatre have petitioned the Madras High Court. However, the High Court rejected each of the three petitions.

Prada also pledged to reimburse the sum collected from the workers when the matter was heard by the Egmore court. However, ESI’s lawyer challenged against this, and the judge gave the actor a six-month jail term.