After four years in prison, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s close aide 63-year-old V K Sasikala has been freed on Wednesday from Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara Prison. Jailed on charges of corruption, she will however continue to be in hospital where she is being treated for COVID-19.
Sasikala had contracted the infection on January 20 and admitted to Bengaluru’s Bowring hospital and later shifted to the Victoria hospital. Though her initial RT-PCR test reports turned negative, fresh tests conducted last Thursday confirmed she had contracted COVID-19.
All official formalities for her release were completed in the hospital itself.
Sasikala was sentenced to four years imprisonment in February 2017 in the Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case along with her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi and and Jayalalithaa’s foster son V N Sudhakaran.
In November 2019, Income Tax Department had reportedly attached properties valued Rs 1,600 crore allegedly belonging to her under Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act provisions. Agencies alleged that she purchased nine properties – in Chennai, Puducherry and Coimbatore – soon after demonetisation in November 2016.