Explaining his silence on this matter, he said he did not react immediately after the judgement was out since this was an important case and that he had decided to carefully study the verdict and then "explain".
"Further, I neither rejoiced over the AIADMK leader being punished nor am I ready to regret that she has come out on bail," he said in the first of a series of letters to partymen on this matter.
He later filed a petition before the Principal Sessions Court, alleging that Jayalalithaa had amassed wealth disproportionate to known sources of income.
The court took cognisance of the complaint and directed senior IPS officer Letika Saran to probe the matter, Karunanidhi said.
Subsequently, an FIR was filed in September 1996, he said.