Bengaluru: Expelled AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala was today granted a five-day parole by Karnataka jail authorities. Sasikala had sought parole to attend to her ailing husband M. Natarajan. Interestingly, the parole comes just two days after authorities rejected her plea on “technical grounds.”
She will walk out of Parappana Agrahara Prison in Bengaluru today, nearly eight months after she was jailed for corruption. Sasikala’s nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran arrived this morning at the Bengaluru Central Prison with a group of supporters.
Her release on parole comes as a shot in the arm for Dhinakaran, who is trying to topple the present Tamil Nadu government headed by Edappadi K. Palaniswami who is working on an alliance with the breakaway AIADMK group led by former CM O. Panneerselvam. The ruling set up in TN had removed Sasikala and Dhinakaran from all party posts and named late CM J. Jayalalithaa “eternal General Secretary.”
Sasikala had, on October 2, applied for 15-day parole. “The plea was rejected on technical grounds. The paperwork was not done properly due to which the application has been rejected,” top sources in the government said. Authorities had then said she could apply once again. Natarajan underwent liver transplant at a Chennai hospital on Wednesday. He is in the liver intensive care unit of a corporate hospital over the last month following kidney and liver failure.
Sasikala, the closest aide of Jayalalithaa, lived with her at her upscale Poes Garden home in Chennai. Sasikala has been in jail since February after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction by a special court in a disproportionate assets case. Her relatives Ilavarasi and V.N. Sudhakaran are also serving four-year jail terms.
This post was published on October 6, 2017 6:59 pm