Ex-Tamil Nadu CM J. Jayalalithaa's close aide Sasikala reaches Golfshire Resort

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's close aide V.K. Sasikala Natarajan was discharged on Sunday. Sasikala was set free on Wednesday by the state prison authorities after she completed four years imprisonment at a jail here in a disproportionate assets case. She has reached Prestige Golfshire resort in Bengaluru where she will spend 7 days in quarantine before heading for Chennai.

Bengaluru (Karnataka):Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's close aide V.K. Sasikala Natarajan was discharged on Sunday from a hospital here, where she is undergoing treatment for Covid-19, an official bulletin said.

According to the bulletin, Sasikala completed 10 days of treatment on Saturday. "She has been asymptomatic and maintaining saturation without oxygen since three days. As per protocol, she can be discharged from the hospital," the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute said in its bulletin.

"The team of doctors attending to her has taken the decision that she is fit for discharge and will be released on Sunday morning with the advice of home quarantine," it stated.

Sasikala was set free on Wednesday by the state prison authorities after she completed four years imprisonment at a jail here in a disproportionate assets case. The case pertains to the amassment of disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 66.65 crore during Jayalalithaa's tenure as the Chief Minister from 1991-1996.

Sasikala was rushed to the government-run Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital on January 20 from the prison hospital, after falling ill there and had been transferred to the Victoria Hospital the following day, where she tested positive for Covid-19.

After close to four years of imprisonment, AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa's close aide V.K. Sasikala was freed from the Parappana Agrahara central jail.

Sasikala has reached Prestige Golfshire resort in Bengaluru. She will stay here in quarantine up to for 7 days till February 8. She is scheduled to leave for Chennai on February 11 from Bengaluru.

As the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu is on a high note, the release of Sasikala also called 'Chinamma' will have an impact in the electorates’ mood towards the ruling AIADMK.

After Jayalalithaa’s death in 2017, she was about to become the chief minister of Tamil Nadu but her ambitions remain intact as she was convicted in a disproportionate assets case.

Sasikala was introduced to politics by Jayalalithaa in 1984 and played a much bigger role in AIADMK and Tamil Nadu politics.
She was arrested along with Jayalalithaa on 7 December 1996 and was remanded to judicial custody for 30 days in connection with the Colour TV scam.

On 5 February 2017, Sasikala was unanimously elected as the AIADMK Legislature Party Leader by a meeting of all the MLAs in the party.

During Jayalalithaa's three tenures as Chief Minister, Sasikala was alleged to have laundered huge amounts of wealth amassed by Jayalalithaa.

After Jayalalithaa's death, the party's general council elected her as the secretary-general of AIADMK. On August 21, 2017, Sasikala was expelled from the AIADMK and removed from her post of General Secretary.

(Agencies)