Sasikala released from jail, to stay in Bengaluru hospital

Sasikala released from jail, to stay in Bengaluru hospital

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:28.01.2021

Former AIADMK secretary VK Sasikala was released on Wednesday, ending a four-year jail term in a disproportionate assets case. She will continue to be treated at Victoria Hospital for Covid-19 for the next few days and is free to walk out on discharge.

Hundreds of Sasikala’s supporters, including nephew TTV Dinakaran, were seen waiting oustide the hospital ahead of her release. However, doctors and police refused to let the supporters in. Dinakaran was seen entering the hosptial after prison officials completed the formalities. A close aide of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, Sasikala was lodged at the central prison in Parappana Agrahara along with her sister-in-law J Elavarasi and nephew VN Sudhakaran in the case. Charges against the prime accused and Jayalalithaa lapsed as she had passed away by the time the Supreme Court upheld the trial court judgment.

On Wednesday, prison officials completed the release formalities at the hospital. Sasikala signed the prison register, which she had last signed while entering the jail on February 15, 2017, hours after the SC judgment. “With love, blessings and good wishes of her supporters, Chinnamma (Sasikala) is recovering and she will be discharged soon. She is getting good treatment here and we are happy with it. Doctors have to decide when to discharge her. Merging of political parties and other decisions on Tamil Nadu politics will be taken soon,” Dinakaran said. A bulletin released by Victoria Hospital on Wednesday said Sasikala will be discharged on the tenth day of her admission if she is asymptomatic and free of oxygen support for at least three days.

With a week to go for her scheduled release, Sasikala was shifted to Bowring hospital on January 20 following fever and breathlessness. The next day, she was shifted to Victoria Hospital, where her second RT-PCR test showed she was Covid-positive. “Sasikala, convict number-9234, has completed her four years of term and paid the fine. Today, she will be released. If she is to be treated further, please treat her as general patient. She need not come back to prison,” read a communication from the chief superintendent of police, central prison, to the medical officer of Victoria Hospital.