Expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala was discharged from Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday after recovering from COVID-19, days after her release from the Parappana Agrahara prison upon completing her jail term in a corruption case.

Despite restrictions, close to 300 of her supporters thronged the exit gate at Victoria Hospital and showered flower petals to welcome her. As the eight-car convoy left from the hospital, sources confirmed to TNM that she will stay in a rented villa in the outskirts of Bengaluru for a couple of days before making her way back to Tamil Nadu in a grand procession.

As Sasikala waved to her supporters from inside the car, it was significant that she was driven in a car with an AIADMK flag, in what is being read as the first political message since her discharge.

Sasikala was recently admitted to Victoria Hospital after she tested positive for COVID-19 while under judicial custody. Prison authorities had formally released her on January 27 after she completed the four-year jail term in a Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case.

On the advice of doctors, she remained in the hospital and was discharged on Sunday after her latest test reports came negative for COVID-19, hospital officials said. More than 300 police personnel were deployed in the area to ensure law and order, police said.

Sambasivan, one of her supporters from Hosur in the border district of Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, told PTI that this was like a festival for him.

Sasikala's release comes ahead of the Assembly elections likely in April-May this year in Tamil Nadu.

With PTI inputs