A Tamil Nadu government school employee drawing a starting salary of Rs 1,100 per month quietly accumulated 21 properties, a marriage hall, agricultural land, and household assets worth Rs 53 lakh over 11 years, parking most of it in his wife's name. After a two-decade legal battle, the Madras High Court has upheld the wife's conviction for abetment of disproportionate assets, refusing to reduce her four-year sentence even after her counsel disclosed she is now battling Stage IV cancer.