This story is from January 21, 2021

Bengaluru: VK Sasikala, set to walk out of prison on January 27, admitted to hospital

Former AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, serving a four-year term in Central Prison, was shifted to Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College Hospital around 5.30pm on Wednesday.Sasikala, who will be released on January 27, was suffering from fever and breathlessness.
Bengaluru: VK Sasikala, set to walk out of prison on January 27, admitted to hospital
Sasikala was brought in with cough and fever, the director of Bowring hospital said late on Wednesday night
BENGALURU: Former AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, serving a four-year term in Central Prison, was shifted to Bowring and Lady Curzon Medical College Hospital around 5.30pm on Wednesday.
Sasikala, who will be released on January 27, was suffering from fever and breathlessness. She was put in an isolation ward. Her throat swab samples were found negative in the Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR tests for Covid-19.
“She’s being treated with high flow nasal oxygen,” said hospital medical superintendent Dr Vijayalakshmi GN.

When she was brought to the hospital, her oxygen saturation level was 80% against the normal 95% and above. “With oxygen support, she is maintaining oxygen saturation level of 97 %,” shes aid.
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Prison officials said Sasikala was down with fever since Monday evening. Doctors from the prison hospital attended to her and gave some medicines. On Wednesday, Sasikala complained of breathlessness. “Prison hospital doctors checked her and referred her to Bowring for treatment. We have requested doctors to scan her general health too,” they said.
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“Sasikala, 63, who has comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes and hypothyroidism, has been admitted with cough and fever,” Dr Manoj Kumar HV, dean and director of
Bowring hospital, said late at night.
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Prison officials officially communicated the date of her release to her advocates. However, there is no clarity on when her fellow convicts in the case — relative J Ilavarasi and nephew VN Sudhakaran — will be released.
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While conviction of the prime accused in the case, former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, lapsed as she died before the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on February 14, 2017, the three other convicts walked into Central Prison that same day. Besides four years in jail, the three were fined Rs 10 crore each, failure to pay which entails another year in the prison.
A special court in Bengaluru had deducted 89 days of imprisonment of Sudhakaran, permitting him to walk out any time after paying Rs 10 crore. However, he hasn’t yet paid the fine and reports from Chennai indicate Sasikala will be the first to walk out of jail for political reasons.
Sudhakaran’s jail term ended on January 14. “We wonder why he hasn’t paid the fine as he has been fighting a legal battle for early release,” an official of the prisons department said. Ilavarasi, to be relased in February, too hasn’t paid fine.
Sasikala paid the fine in November 2020. In her application to the home department, she sought remission, enabling an early release. The papers are with the home department. “The formalities will begin on January 26. An official communication will be made to Sasikala, asking her to get ready to walk out on January 27. That morning, she has to sign a few documents,” prison officials said.
Asked if she had deposited any property or gold, officials said, “There was no gold ornament on her when she walked into jail. She didn’t have any cash too.”
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