Sidelined AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala, who is serving a four-year sentence in Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara jail, has applied for 15-day parole. Her nephew and ousted Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran confirmed the developments to the media on Monday.
Speaking in Chennai, Dhinakaran said, “She has applied for parole. The application will be considered tomorrow and we are hoping she gets it.”
Sasikala has applied for parole to see her estranged husband M Natarajan, who has been hospitalised in Chennai for liver and kidney failure. This is the first time Sasikala has applied for parole since her imprisonment in February.
Natarajan, who has been admitted at the Gleneagles Global Health City in Chennai, has been undergoing treatment for liver failure for the last nine months. A bulletin issued by the hospital last week had stated that the 74-year-old was awaiting a kidney and a liver transplant. His health condition is reportedly stable.
It is however, the prerogative of Karnataka jail authorities to grant Sasikala parole. She has been embroiled in controversy after an IPS officer Roopa Moudgil accused jail authorities of arranging all kinds of facilities for Sasikala in jail.
In February, the Supreme Court set aside Sasikala’s acquittal by the Karnataka High Court in the Jayalalithaa Disproportionate Assets Case. The apex court also “restored in full” the trial court’s conviction. Sasikala’s sister-in-law Ilavarasi and nephew Sudhakaran were also convicted in the case. The case against former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, however, stood abated following her death in December last year.