Sasikala has 129 days remission, can walk out of prison anytime

Sasikala has 129 days remission, can walk out of prison anytime

A Subramani & Rajiv Kalkod TNN

Chennai/Bengaluru: 20.11.2020

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’a aide V K Sasikala, now serving a four-year jail term in Karnataka, can walk out anytime, theoretically.

If one goes by the rules on leaves for prisoners, she has completed her prison term and was eligible to walk out of the jail more than two months ago. Karnataka jail rules enable a convict to earn three days of remission for every full month spent in jail. A total of 129 days of earned remission have accrued to Sasikala’s history ticket so far. Sasikala’s lawyer Raja Senthur Pandian told TOI that as on Thursday she needed only 69 days of earned leave to step out of the Parappana Agrahara jail. “If you add leave incentive for good conduct activities like gardening and taking courses in Kannada and computers, she has earned more than 200 days of leave. Yet, it has been denied due to discretionary powers of officials.”

A Parappana Agrahara jail official said they have been getting calls from supporters seeking to know whether Sasikala would be released on Saturday. “Sasikala has spent 13 days in judicial custody between January 31 and February 12, 1997. After the trial court convicted her, she spent 22 days between September 27 and October 18, 2014, in prison. If these 35 days are considered, Sasikala is likely to be released on January 27, 2021,” an officer said. “The date was calculated after considering 17 days’ parole she used.”

V K Sasikala at Jayalalithaa memorial in Chennai

Earned leave prisoner’s right, say some

Sasikala, accompanied by her co-convict and sisterin-law J Ilavarasi, entered the Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru on February 15, 2017, a day after the Supreme Court upheld a trial court order finding them guilty of corruption and amassment of wealth.

Former chief minister Jayalalithaa, too, was found guilty, but charges against her abated as she was no more.

Though the imminent release of Sasikala has been a hot topic in power corridors, the news that the ₹10 crore fine imposed on her was paid on November 18, has triggered curiosity outside political circles. Rules empower jail superintendents to give prisoners a relaxation of 30 days per year for good conduct; a deputy inspector-general of prisons can give 60 days and IG prisons can give 90 days per year, based on a mark system.

“While mark-based remission relief is discretionary, the one which Sasikala must have earned on monthly basis cannot be denied,” said A Sirajudeen, senior Supreme Court lawyer and author of the book ‘The Rights of Prisoners’. The earned leave can be forfeited only if the convict commits a prison offence for which due trial was conducted and she was punished, he said. “A written punishment order, too, should be served on the convict. In the absence of this process, earned leave is an earned right,” he said.

Replies obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act show how similar earned remission benefits have been extended to other convicts during the same period. Pandian said there is a Union home ministry note clarifying that those convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act are excluded from the benefit.

Sirajudeen said the parole period should not be exempted from the jail term. “If these mandatory benefits are denied citing discretionary powers, it is a good ground for filing a personal liberty petition saying her continued incarceration amounts to illegal confinement, he said.

Some differ. Advocate S Ashok Kumar said remission is not a legal right. “It isn’t an absolute right either. Remission days are calculated, and above that their conduct is considered. Whether, during the period of sentence, the convict has reformed or his/her release will not harm others should be up to the subjective satisfaction of the appropriate government,” he said.

V K Sasikala and sister-in-law J Ilavarasi, convicted in a disproportionate assets case, went to prison in February 2017