Sasikala, two other convicts may arrive in Bengaluru today

AIADMK general secretary Sasikala Natarajan and her two relatives V N Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi, convicted in the Rs 66.65-crore disproportionate assets case, are likely to be lodged at the central prison, Parappana Agrahara, in the city by Wednesday night.

“The convicts should surrender themselves before the court in Bengaluru as per the Supreme Court’s directions. The judge will remand them in judicial custody soon after this. He will issue an arrest warrant if they fail to follow the directions,” H N Sathyanarayan Rao, DGP (Prisons), told DH.

Ashwath Narayan is the judge nominated to complete formalities to ensure the surrender of the convicts. As the special court set up at Parappana Agrahara has been wound up, the trio could appear before the city civil court, said the police.

The prison authorities clarified that Sasikala would not be given facilities which VVIP prisoners are entitled to as she neither holds any public post of utmost importance or faces threats from organisations, like Jayalalithaa did. She would be treated like any other female convict. The lone solace for them is the provision of getting food from home. “She can plead with the court for getting food cooked at home. She will be entitled to the facility only if the court grants permission,” Rao clarified. There is a two-storey structure at the women’s enclosure in the prison, where a hospital is housed on the ground floor and a single cell on the first floor. Sasikala may be lodged in one of these cells. The authorities will allot a prisoner number to them once she arrives.

Sasikala’s prisoner number was 7403 when she was in the prison in 2014, along with Jayalalithaa, Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi. Sasikala was lodged, with Ilavarasi, in a cell where Subha, convicted in the murder of a software engineer, was lodged.

Sudhakaran was kept in the VIP cell. Jayalalithaa and Sasikala were released on October 18, 2016, after the Supreme Court granted them bail. The police have tightened security in and around the prison. “We are contemplating deploying additional forces. We are yet to take a decision regarding the number of platoons for deployment and places to station them,” DCP (Southeast) Dr Boralingaiah said. “We will take the decision based on the situation. There is no information yet regarding the arrival of the convicts,” he said.
DH News Service