With just a week to go for her release, former AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala has been rushed to Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital at Shivaji Nagar in Bengaluru after she complained of fever and breathlessness
“We have received a message that Sasikala is unwell and has been moved to the hospital. She had developed fever and breathlessness. The information from prison is that her health condition is stable,” Sasikala’s consul Raja Senthoor Pandian informed THE WEEK.
Incidentally, Sasikala will be completing her four-year jail term in a week and is due to be released from the Prapana Agrahara prison on January 27. Sources say that she is undergoing several tests and senior medical experts are monitoring her health. The 69-year old former AIADMK leader walked into the prison on February 15, 2017, after she and her co-sister Ilavarasi J. and her nephew V.N. Sudhakaran were convicted in the Rs 66-crore Disproportionate Assets case, in former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was accused number 1.
Sources close to Sasikala say that she is suspected to be infected with COVID-19. She had developed fever after she had a few important meetings on January 18 with visitors to discuss her political future, after the release. However, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, on Tuesday, categorically denied chances of Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran being reinducted into the AIADMK, after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.
Palaniswami was on a two-day visit to New Delhi to call on Home Minister Amit Shah and Modi. His visit assumed significance as the BJP in Tamil Nadu has still not openly acknowledged him as the chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming assembly election. The BJP being one of the important alliance partners of the AIADMK was earlier expecting Rajinikanth to launch his party. Later, there were several news reports of Sasikala and Dhinakaran being reinducted into the party.
Apparently, Dhinakaran too flew to Delhi at least twice in the last few months to call on senior BJP leaders in Delhi. According to sources he once met Bhupendra Yadav, the Man Friday of Shah, in Delhi. Reportedly, Palaniswami’s visit to Delhi on Tuesday had closed all the doors for Dhinakaran and Sasikala to get into the AIADMK.
