Sasikala meets visitors 12 times a month

AIADMK chief V K Sasikala, lodged at Parappana Agrahara central prison in the city, has met visitors 12 times a month, reportedly in violation of prison rules. Sasikala has been convicted in a disproportionate assets case.

According to information made available by the prison authorities in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query, Sasikala met the visitors between February 16 and March 18. Her relatives and co-convicts in the case, Ilavarasi and V N Sudhakaran, met visitors four times and once respectively during the same period. Sasikala’s visitors include lawyers, her nephews T T V Dinakaran and Vivek J and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai.

Activist Narasimha Murthy, who had filed the RTI application, claimed that Sasikala had been allowed to meet visitors in violation of prison rules.

Undertrials and convicts are entitled to meet visitors as per the Karnataka Prison Manual and Karnataka Prison Rules. The rules state that undertrials are eligible for one such meeting a week with their relatives, friends and lawyers, while convicts can have visitors once in 15 days.

While the jail authorities were unavailable for comments, reports quoting prison officials suggest that the jailer can use discretion in this regard.

Sasikala was sent to jail on February15 after she surrendered before a trial court in Bengaluru, a day after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.