Sasikala to walk free today

Bengaluru, Jan 26: Expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala will be a free person on Wednesday after completing her four-year jail term in a corruption case. However, Sasikala, who has tested positive for COVID-19, will continue to be treated for the infection.

According to prison authorities, the former aide of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, will be formally released today.

".. all the formalities pertaining to her release will be completed tomorrow at the hospital itself," a prison official told PTI. Sasikala had contracted the virus on January 20 and was admitted to the Bowring hospital initially before being shifted to the dedicated COVID-19 centre at the Victoria hospital. It is not clear when she would be discharged from the hospital.

Independent legislator Dhinakaran, Sasikala''s nephew and founder of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) had on Monday said a decision on the discharge of her aunt from the hospital would be taken after consulting the doctors.

Sasikala was sentenced to four years imprisonment in February 2017 in the Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case aloing with her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi and and Jayalalithaa''s foster son V N Sudhakaran. According to a hospital bulletin, Sasikala is now doing well.

"She is asymptomatic, conscious alert and well oriented. She is being continuously monitored," the hospital said in the bulletin. Authorities at the Victoria hospital said as per COVID-19 protocol she may have to spend 10 days at the facility. But, if her family wishes to shift her to a private hospital they are allowed to, he added. On the other hand, Ilavarasi, who too had contracted coronavirus is asymptomatic. She will be free in the first week of February.