Rules at stake in Bengaluru jail for Sasikala, AIADMK leader meets visitors 12 times a month when only allowed twice

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Bengaluru: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader VK Sasikala, who is serving a four-year jail term in central prison Parappana Agahara after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case, has met visitors 12 times in a month in blatant violation of rules.

As per the information made available by the Central Prison in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query, Sasikala met the visitors between February 16 and March 18.

Her relatives and co-convicts in the case, Elavarasi and VN Sudhakaran, met visitors four times and once respectively during the said period.

Among Sasikala's visitors were lawyers, her nephews TTV Dinakaran and Vivek J and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai.

The Times of India cites prison records as saying that Dinakaran met Sasikala on February 20 and March 8, and each interaction lasted over 45 minutes.

Former MP and Telugu Desam Party MLC Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy met Sasikala on March 1, showed the records.

Activist Narasimha Murthy, who had filed the RTI application, claimed to PTI that this was in violation of jail rules.

Undertrials and convicts are entitled to meet visitors as per the Karnataka Prison Manual and Karnataka Prison Rules.

The rules state that undertrial prisoners are eligible for one such meeting a week with their relatives, friends, and lawyers, while convicts are eligible to have visitors once in 15 days. However, the rule was flouted in the case of Convict No 9234, Sasikala.

While the jail authorities were unavailable for comments, reports quoting prison officials suggest that the jailer can use discretion in this regard.

On February 15, Sasikala was sent to jail after she surrendered before a trial court here, a day after the Supreme Court restored her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.

(With Agency inputs)