V K Sasikala, a close confidante of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, will “walk free” on Wednesday morning, completing her four-year prison term in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. She will affix her signature in a document brought by authorities from the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru to her room in the Victoria Hospital where she is being treated for Covid-19.
“My client, V K Sasikala, will be released in the DA case between 10 am to 11 am on January 27. Once authorities get her signature, she will be declared free,” N Raja Senthoor Pandian, Sasikala’s counsel, told DH. Immediately after she is declared free, prison guards placed inside the hospital for her security will be withdrawn.
The formalities for her release were completed by Pandian and his team on January 25 since Tuesday was a public holiday. The counsel added that her discharge from the hospital will be decided by doctors treating her. “The family will decide on her further plans,” Pandian added.
Sasikala, who surrendered before authorities at the Bengaluru jail on February 15, 2017, was rushed to the Lady Curzon and Bowring Hospital on January 20 after she complained of breathing issues. The next day, she was shifted to Victoria Hospital where she tested positive for Covid-19.
Sasikala’s health condition is said to be stable with doctors saying that she was showing good progress. Her release from jail comes just months before Tamil Nadu faces its most-crucial Assembly elections in recent times.
Though Sasikala’s nephew T T V Dhinakaran, who is the general secretary of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), maintains that his aunt would plunge into active politics immediately after her release, there is little clarity on what she would do.
Once she is back in Chennai, Sasikala is likely to stay at the residence of her niece J Krishnapriya.