Special treatment to Sasikala: Charge sheet filed, ACB tells Karnataka HC

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday informed the High Court that a charge sheet has been filed in the case of alleged irregularities and preferential treatment to V K Sasikala at the central prison in Bengaluru.

Sasikala, a close associate of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, was convicted in the multi-crore disproportionate assets case and had served four years imprisonment at the Parappana Agrahara central prison.

In the previous hearing, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi had directed the government to take a decision on the sanction request forwarded by the ACB on July 15, 2021.

The government advocate said that the prosecution sanction was accorded against the then jail superintendents at the central prison Krishna Kumar and Dr R Anitha, who have been shown as accused no 1 and 2 in the case.

The ACB has arrayed Sasikala as accused no 5 and her co-prisoner Ilavarasi as accused no 6 in the case.

Noting that the petition was disposed of on June 11, 2021 itself, the bench observed that no further orders are required to be passed in the matter.

The PIL was filed by K S Gita, a Chennai-based educationist. The petition claimed that despite a report submitted by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar, indicating preferential treatment to Sasikala inside the Parappana Agrahara central prison, the ACB had not completed the investigation. Sasikala was released from the prison in January 2021.

The allegation against Krishna Kumar was that he deputed Anitha in charge of Sasikala’s security inside the prison though there was no life threat or any such alert from any agency.

It is alleged that Sasikala was provided a preferential place inside the jail, citing security reasons. The prisoner was also allowed more time to talk to visitors, besides other preferential treatments.

Meanwhile, a single bench of the court has stayed the operation of the prosecution sanction order dated December 30, 2021, on the petition filed by Dr Anitha.

The order passed by Justice H T Narendra Prasad on January 28, 2022, stated that the interim order will be in force till the next date of hearing.

In her petition, Anitha has contended that the articles of charges, in a separate departmental proceeding, framed against her on the same issue were quashed by the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal on January 6, 2020.

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