DA case: Sasikala surrenders after SC declines plea for more time, sent to Bengaluru central jail

Supreme Court had restored Sasikala's conviction on Tuesday in the two-decades-old disproportionate assets case.

Bengaluru: VK Sasikala surrendered before a trial court here, a day after the Supreme Court restored her conviction in the two-decades-old disproportionate assets case.

Driving from Chennai straight to the court, 60-year-old Sasikala appeared before the special court judge Ashwathnarayana, as the apex court refused to give her a breather rejecting her request for more time to surrender.

During the brief hearing today, the Supreme Court said the word 'immediately' has been used in its judgement with regard to the surrender of the convict.

"I hope you (Sasikala's counsel KTS Tulsi) understand the meaning of the word 'immediately'," Justice PC Ghose who headed the two-member bench said.

Travelling in the same car that Jayalalithaa used, Sasikala arrived at the central jail housed at Parappana Agrahara, close to Hosur on Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, towards the evening amid tight security.

Sasikala's relatives VN Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, who were also convicted by the trial court, were also imprisoned after they surrendered and fulfilled court formalities.

She will be in jail for three years and about 11 months out of the four years sentence awarded by the trial court, DG (Prisons) Sathyanarayana Rao told PTI.

She had earlier spent 21 days in Parappana Agrahara jail after conviction by the trial court in September 2014.

Sasikala and Elavarasi would share a small cell in women's block in the jail, Rao said.

He said Sasikala would get normal food, not home food, but it would be according to the doctor's advice.

Sudhakaran would also be sharing the cell with other inmates, he said.

A prison official told journalists that the long-time confidante of the late J Jayalalithaa is expected to make candles in jail, as per IANS.

Before leaving Chennai, Sasikala visited the Marina Beach memorial of Jayalalithaa. Hitting the floor thrice with her right hand, she pledged to return to politics after defeating the "betrayers" in the AIADMK.

pic.twitter.com/rkG5uCGL3h — AIADMK (@AIADMKOfficial) February 15, 2017

She later went to AIADMK founder late MG Ramachandran's house at Ramavaram and paid her respects before his picture and also meditated for some time.

At both places, hundreds of supporters gathered, most of them looking grim.

Once SC held Sasikala guilty of corruption, the MLAs backing Sasikala elected Palanisamy as their new legislature party leader.

Sasikala had yesterday given pep talk to her party MLAs and supporters to stay bold and remain united.

"Only I can be jailed, not the care or concern I have for this party. Wherever I will be, my thoughts will be here," she had told both her MLAs at Koovathur resort as well as to her supporters later at Poes Garden late last night.

She would be thinking about the party round-the-clock and that "no force can wean away" the party from her, Sasikala had said.

In its 570-page judgement, the apex court had held her guilty of conspiring with late AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and "restored in toto" the trial court's decision in the case.

The trial court had found disproportionate assets worth Rs 53.60 crore, which Jayalalithaa and the three others could not account for. The CBI had alleged that the unaccounted wealth was in the tune of Rs 66.65 crore.

Sasikala had been in the jail in 1996 when the case was registered and later in 2014 after the special trial court convicted and awarded a four-year sentence with a fine of Rs 10 crore. Jayalalithaa was then awarded four-year jail term, besides a fine of Rs 100 crore.

The proceedings against Jayalalithaa were abated as she breathed her last on December 5 last year.

Jayalalithaa was disqualified following her conviction in the case by the trial court on September 27, 2014, when special court Judge Michael D Cunha held her and three others guilty of corruption and awarded four years jail term.

But Justice Kumaraswamy of the Karnataka High Court had set aside the trial court's judgement and allowed the appeals by all the four convicts holding that the verdict and findings recorded by the trial court convicting her and three others suffers from infirmity and it is not sustainable in law.

The apex court verdict means Sasikala cannot hold public office or contest elections for 10 years, the period of her jail term plus six years after that. 

(With Agency inputs)