Convicted in the Disproportionate Assets case, AIADMK General Secretary V.K.Sasikala surrendered before the special court set up in the Parappana Agrahara prison complex in Bengaluru on Wednesday evening.
Sasikala chose to drive down to Bengaluru from Chennai around 12 noon, after the Supreme Court rejected her plea seeking two weeks' time to surrender.
While Sasikala arrived in Bengaluru by road along with her supporters in a convoy of 10 cars, AIADMK workers turned up in large numbers at the court complex to express their solidarity.
Even as she entered the court complex around 5.15 pm, a few minutes after her estranged husband Natarajan had reached there along with Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha Thambidurai, the crowd grew restless and some people began vandalising the SUVs belonging to Sasikala's supporters. They shouted slogans, condemning Sasikala as a “cheat” and traitor” of their 'Amma'. The police swung into action and resorted to mild lathicharge to disperse the miscreants who were targeting all the TN registration vehicles with bricks. A number of vehicles were damaged in the melee.
Sasikala appeared before the judge-in-charge Justice Ashwath Narayana in the makeshift special court, (as the special court was dismantled soon after the trial court hearing in the DA case in October 2014), along with one of the two co-convicts and sister-in-law J. Ilavarasai. While V.N. Sudhakaran, her nephew and fourth accused appeared much later.
Sasikala's sudden shift from the Poes Garden residence of late J Jayalalithaa (where she nurtured the dram of occupying the CM's post) to Parappana Agrahara jail in far off Bengaluru, has been very dramatic, and so is the political turmoil in her state.
Sasikala's fortunes don't seem to have changed much from the time she was lodged in the Central Jail for the first time, after the trial court (judge John Michael D'Cunha) convicted them in the Disproportionate Assets case on September 27, 2014.
Last time, Sasikala had spent 21 days in jail along with the accused no. 1 in the case – late Jayalalithaa. But she was an ordinary inmate, unlike her VVIP friend and co-convict Jayalalithaa, who had special privileges including a private cell, fan and Tamil and English newspapers. This time again, Sasikala was refused any special treatment owing to her profile.
The judge turned down her request for a special cell, western style commode, separate television to keep track of TN politics, place to meditate, home-cooked food citing her ill health (diabetes) and 24X7 medical attention. She was merely asked to submit her health reports to the in-house medical officer.
After completing the court formalities, Sasikala was handed over to the jail authorities for medical examination and admission procedures. She was allotted a general barrack, which she will be sharing with Ilavarasi. She has been given the prisoner number '9234' and Ilavarasi '9235' and they have been assigned candle-making as a vocation which will fetch her a daily wage of Rs. 50.
On Wednesday evening, around 6.15 pm when she finally walked into the jail with a half-smile, to serve her four-year sentence, she was handed three white sarees as prison uniform, a blanket, pillow, bowl, tumbler and a plate.
