Former AIADMK leader V K Sasikala will walk out of the Parapanna Agrahara prison in Bengaluru in the “morning hours” of January 27 after completion of her four-year prison term in a disproportionate assets (DA) case.
Sasikala's counsel N Raja Senthoor Pandian told Deccan Herald that he received an e-mail from the Chief Superintendent of the Parapanna Agrahara prison on Tuesday evening informing him about his client's release.
“The e-mail says my client, Ms V K Sasikala, is eligible for release during the morning hours of January 27, 2021. With this, it is clear that my client will be released on the said date,” Pandian said.
The jail officials, on condition of anonymity, told DH that Sasikala was being released from prison based on directions from the Karnataka government.
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The e-mail from the prison authority was in response to Pandian's mail sent earlier.
Sasikala, 69, surrendered before the jail authorities on February 15, 2017 after the Supreme Court upheld a 2014-trial court order that sentenced four persons, including late J Jayalalithaa, to four years in jail for amassing wealth.
Her release comes just before Tamil Nadu goes to its most-crucial assembly polls in recent years.
The prison had in September last year said Sasikala's “probable date of release” is January 27, 2021 after taking into account days she already spent in jail before her conviction provided she pays the fine amount as imposed on her by the court. Sasikala's brother-in-law Pazhanivelu, his wife Vasantha Devi, her nephews Dr S Venkatesh and Vivek Jayaraman paid Rs 10 crore and ten thousand on behalf of her before a Bengaluru court on November 18.
DH had on January 4 reported that Sasikala's family has identified two to three accommodations in Chennai for her to stay after she walks out of the jail as the Poes Garden palatial bungalow of Jayalalithaa, where she had stayed for decades together, is now under the control of the Tamil Nadu government which will convert it into a memorial for her.
Sasikala's first year in prison was marked by several controversies as she and her sister-in-law Ilavarasi, who is also serving her sentence in the DA case, were accused of enjoying “five-star” treatment inside the jail. Sasikala was also alleged to have stepped out of the jail for “shopping.”