Sasikala surrenders, returns to Bengaluru central jail

Bengaluru: AIADMK chief V K Sasikala was yesterday sent to jail after she 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 Supreme Court refused to give her a breather rejecting her request for more time to surrender.

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

Sasikala's relatives V N 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.

In commotion after Sasikala's arrival, four cars in her cavalcade were damaged in vandalism, police said but added it was not known who did it.

It was a different scene altogether yesterday than when Sasikala came with Jayalalithaa in September 2014 when they were convicted by the trial court and sent to the same jail.

Thousands had gathered then in an emotionally charged atmosphere with AIADMK leaders and MLAs in large numbers but this time it was a subdued atmosphere, with only the media contingent, onlookers and a group of supporters being present. With the Supreme Court being firm on not giving any more time, Sasikala left Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence in Chennai just before noon and headed to Bengaluru after visiting Jayalalithaa's memorial on Marina beach where she paid floral tributes to the late leader.

In dramatic gestures, an emotional Sasikala went around the burial site, muttered something and tapped on the tomb thrice and prayed and prostrated.

Sasikala also visited the Ramapuram residence of AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran where she briefly meditated before leaving for Bengaluru.

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, whose chief ministerial ambitions were put paid to by the Supreme Court verdict, had said.

Before leaving the Poes Garden residence of Jayalalithaa, where Sasikala continued to stay after the former's demise last December, she was greeted by slogan-shouting supporters.

At the Jayalalithaa memorial, Sasikala made her way through the crowd of supporters that included a sobbing former Minister Gokula Indira and Deputy General Secretary and her nephew T T V Dinakaran, and put up a brave face.

Some women there also performed 'aarti' for Sasikala. 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.