Sasikala chargesheeted by Karnataka ACB for getting 'preferential treatment' in jail

The legal woes for ex-AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala mounted as the Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau filed a chargesheet against her in a case pertaining to the alleged privileged treatment given to her in the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. The ACB brought this to the notice of the Karnataka High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj which was hearing a plea filed by social worker KS Gita on Wednesday. The chargesheet also named Sasikala's sister-in-law J Ilavarasi and four officials of the prison department- Krishna Kumar, Dr. R Anitha, B Suresh, and Gajaraja Makanooru.

In 2017, the then Deputy Inspector General of Prisons D Roopa claimed that Rs.2 crore had been paid to facilitate preferential treatment for Sasikala in prison. However, the DGP rejected these allegations and she was transferred from her post. However, retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar found merit in D Roopa's allegations and prepared a 295-page report in 2019 regarding the same. The accused persons have been booked under Sections 465, 468, 471, 120B and 109 of the IPC and Sections 13(1)(c) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Sasikala seeks to regain AIADMK control

On January 27, 2021, Sasikala was formally released from prison after serving a 4-year jail term in the Rs.66 crore disproportionate assets case. But, she was discharged from the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru only on January 31, 2021, as she was undergoing treatment for COVID-19. After receiving a raucous welcome on her return to Tamil Nadu, the ousted AIADMK leader declared that she would enter full-fledged politics soon.

In a sudden change of heart on March 3, 2021, she decided to step aside from politics to ensure that "all followers of Jayalalithaa stay together" to defeat DMK in the TN Assembly polls. However, in the last few months, multiple conversations of the ousted AIADMK general secretary have surfaced in which she is heard promising a fresh bid to take back control of the party post its debacle in the election. On her comeback trail, the late J Jayalalithaa's aide has been reaching out to lower-level and mid-level functionaries of AIADMK.

Training guns on the present party leadership in these conversations, she has vowed to set the party right. Brandishing her political credentials, Sasikala recalled having given "advice" to AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran besides claiming credit for bridging the gap between the Janaki Ramachandran faction and the Jayalalithaa faction after MGR passed away. Besides visiting Jayalalithaa's memorial, she also toured Thanjavur, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Pasumpon and Tirunelveli recently.