V.K. Sasikala,close associate of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa, is nearing the completion of her fouryear jail term in a disproportionate assets case.
Sasikala has been serving the sentence with her sisterinlaw J. Ilavarasi and nephew V.N. Sudhakaran, who too would complete their fouryear jail terms around the same time.
Although there is no offi¬cial confirmation on the date of her release, sources said Sasikala was expected to com¬plete her term on January 27. But it is not known if Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran would also walk free on the same day.
The authorities of Banga¬lore central jail have not been forthcoming with any infor¬mation after Sasikala raised objections.
Sasikala has broken away from the All India Anna Dravi¬da Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) when her nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam in March 2018.
Her onetime associate who played a pivotal role dur¬ing the case, Va Pugazhendi, said everyone was waiting in anticipation for Sasikala to walk out of prison.
“We all know she will be released very soon but have no idea about the exact date,” Pugazhendi, now an AIADMK spokesman, told this newspa¬per on Tuesday.
He said there were great expectations from Sasikala’s return to Tamil Nadu, al¬though she would not be able to contest any election for six years from the date of her re¬lease as per provisions of the Peoples Representation Act that lays down the law for peo¬ple who have served at least two years of prison time.
In Tamil Nadu, efforts are on to convince Sasikala to merge or join her fledgling party with the ruling AIADMKBJP alliance ahead of the state polls this summer and put up a united front against the challenge from the DMK led by M.K. Stalin.
“I have been trying to get the exact date of her release since there is a lot of interest among the people of Tamil Nadu. But the prison officials have refused to give out any information after she raised objections,” RTI activist T. Narasimha Murthy told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
Murthy said he had last filed an RTI application about two weeks ago. But the prison has not released any updated information on her release.
A special court in Bangalore had in September 2014 convicted Jayalalithaa, Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran in the disproportionate assets case. The court had also slapped a penalty of Rs 100 crore on Jayalalithaa, who passed away in December 2016, and Rs 10 crore each on the others.
While the Supreme Court had granted them bail after they had served 22 days in Bangalore central prison, Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran returned to jail in February 2017 to complete the rest of their terms.
Sasikala and her kin eventually paid the fines in November 2020 to pave the way for their timely release from jail.
According to RTI information Murthy had received from the prison authorities in August 2020, Sasikala had served 13 days in judicial custody when she was first arrested in the case in 1997, and another 22 days as a convicted prisoner when all four were sentenced by the special court in 2014. She has been serving the rest of her term from February 2017.
According to another RTI response secured by him in October 2020, Sasikala had opted for parole twice, for five days in October 2017 and 12 days in March 2018 when her husband M. Natarajan passed away in Chennai.
