Bengaluru: Sasikala complains of fever, taken to hospital from jail

Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital said Sasikala’s condition was stable.

Dr Manoj Kumar HV, dean and director, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Bengaluru, told Indianexpress.com, “Sasikala is admitted to the hospital with cough and fever and has comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes and hypothyroidism. She is stable with supportive measures and antibiotics and oxygen. She will be further evaluated and monitored. Investigation reports are awaited.”

The 66-year-old former AIADMK general-secretary is serving a four-year prison term in a disproportionate assets case. Earlier in September 2020, responding to an RTI query by an advocate and activist T Narasimha Murthy, the office of the Chief Superintendent of Prison said Sasikala would  be able to walk out of the prison if she agrees to pay a fine of Rs 10 crore handed to her in the disproportionate case.

In November that year, the fine amount was remitted to the 34th City Civil Court by way of demand drafts through her family. As per her counsel Raja Senthoor Pandian, Sasikala will walk out of the prison during the morning hours of January 27, 2021.

“There won’t be a change in her release date due to this treatment. Sasikala was taken to the hospital by prison authorities and she didn’t come on any parole to postpone her release date,” Pandian told indianexpress.com on Wednesday.

The case of Sasikala pertains to the amassment of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 66.65 crore during J Jayalalithaa’s tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1991-1996. In September 2013, a special court convicted Jayalalithaa to simple imprisonment of four years. She was slapped with a Rs 100-crore fine and forced to step down as the Chief Minister. The three co-accused – VK Sasikala, VN Sudhakaran, and J Ilavarasi – were also convicted. They were awarded a fine amount of Rs 10 crore each.

Jayalalithaa challenged the conviction in the Karnataka High Court, which acquitted her of all charges. However, in 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the special court verdict convicting all four of them. Charges against Jayalalithaa were abated in view of her death on December 5, 2016.