Jail rule breach - Sasikala met 28 visitors in 31 days

BENGALURU: AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, who is serving 4-year jail term in a disproportionate assets case in a Bengaluru jail, is allegedly receiving "special treatment" in prison.

According to documents accessed by TOI, Sasikala had 28 visitors on 14 occasions in 31 days (February 16 to March 18). This is in clear violation of the Karnataka Prison Manual (KPM) and the Karnataka Prison Rules (KPR), which dictate that a convict is eligible for interviews with relatives, friends and advocates at the prison complex under the watchful eye of a prison official only once in 15 days.

Sources at the prison said that each visit lasted over 40 minutes, and were conducted privately. The visitors' list include AIADMK's deputy general secretary and Chennai's RK Nagar bypoll candidate TTV Dhinakaran, deputy speaker of Lok Sabha M Thambidurai, several party bigwigs and an MLC from Andhra Pra desh, Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy. Political sources said Reddy has business interests in Tamil Nadu.

Regular convicts are granted maximum 10 minutes with their kin at a crowded point and behind bars. But many relatives of Sasikala, including nephews Vivek Jayaraman and K Karthikeyan, as well as her advocates have met her with ease, sources said.

DG (Prisons) Sathyanarayana Rao did not respond to TOI's calls.