COURTESY HT SEPT 16

Sasikala may be out before TN polls, if conditions met

VK Sasikala Natarajan
Venkatesha Babu

letters@hindustantimes.com

CHENNAI : Tamil Nadu, which is due to hold assembly elections in the first quarter of next year, may be headed for a change in its political scenario with V K Sasikala Natarajan, a close associate of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, likely to walk out of prison before the polls.

Sasikala is currently serving a four-year term in Bengaluru’s Parapanna Agrahara after being convicted of possessing assets disproportionate to her income by the Supreme Court in February 2017.

According to a reply furnished by the office of the chief superintendent of Parapanna Agrahara to a question posed under the Right To Information Act, the probable date of Sasikala’s release is January 27, 2021, if she pays the court-ordered fine of ₹10 crore. In the event that she fails to pay the fine, she is likely to be released on February 27, 2022.

Sasikala’s lawyer Raja Sendur Pandian said Sasikala is eligible to be released as early as this month-end, although this could not be independently confirmed by HT with prison authorities. He said arrangements have been made to pay the fine.

Her re-entry into Tamil Nadu’s political landscape is likely to have a significant impact in the state where she was elected as general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the leader of its legislature party; she was all set to be sworn in as chief minister before the law closed in on her.

After Sasikala’s arrest, Edappadi Palanswami, then seen as Sasikala’s proxy and a key lieutenant of hers, was elected as leader of the legislature party, and became the CM. After Palanswami fell out with Sasikala’s nephew, TTV Dhinakaran, she was expelled from the AIADMK and removed from the general secretary’s post. Dhinakaran formed a new party, Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam (AMMK), which has not had much electoral success.

AIADMK is yet to react officially on the likely early release