Sasikala seeks parole to ‘meet ailing husband’, asked to resubmit plea

Bengaluru, Oct 3 (IANS) Sidelined AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala on Tuesday applied for 15-day parole to jail authorities here to meet her ailing husband M. Natarajan but was later asked to resubmit her application with more details and affidavits.

"She (Sasikala) applied today (Tuesday) for 15-day parole to visit Chennai in Tamil Nadu to meet her seriously ill husband," Parpanna Agrahara Central Jail Superintendent M. Somashekar told IANS here.

"The decision on parole and its duration will be decided in a couple of days in consultation with authorities concerned," he added.

Sasikala's lawyer G. Sukumaran later told IANS here that her application had not been rejected and that the Jail Superintendent (Somashekar) had asked her to resubmit her plea with more details and supporting documents.

The application was not considered as it was not as per the parole rules, Sukumaran said, adding that she was entitled to parole as she had completed six months of simple imprisonment on August 14.

"As she is serving simple imprisonment since February 15, she is entitled to parole as an ordinary prisoner. She has to fulfil certain requirements for parole, for which we will resubmit the application by Wednesday, the lawyer said.

AIADMK's Karnataka unit President Va Pugazendi told IANS that a section of the media was claiming that Sasikala's application was rejected but was silent on the reasons.

"It's a rumour that her application has been rejected. It's not rejected but withheld on technical grounds. The Jail Superintendent has asked her lawyers to resubmit the application with more details and affidavits. It will be done," Pugazendi said.

A confidante of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, Sasikala, 60, is serving a four-year jail term in the prison on the city's outskirts since February 15 after the Supreme Court on February 14 upheld her conviction in a corruption case in September 2015 by a trial court here.

"Her application will be considered on getting the opinion of the state legal and police departments. We will stipulate the number of days Sasikala will be allowed to be on parole and when she should return," the Jail Superintendent earlier said.

Co-convicts Elavarasi and V.N. Sudhakaran, Sasikala's sister in-law and nephew, are also serving their sentence but have not applied for parole.

M. Natarajan, 74, a former bureaucrat in the Tamil Nadu government during Jayalalithaa's earlier tenures, is awaiting a liver transplant in a private hospital in Chennai, about 350km from here.

He has also registered with the Tamil Nadu Organ Sharing waiting list for cadaver liver transplant.

According to AIADMK faction leader T.T.V. Dinakaran, Natarajan is in the Liver Intensive Care Unit of the Gleneagles Global Health City in Chennai.

Though Jayalalithaa was also convicted in the multi-crore disproportionate assets case as the main accused, she passed away on December 5, 2016, at a private hospital in Chennai.

She was also in the same jail here for three weeks from September 26 to October 20, 2015 but was released on conditional bail by the apex court.