Will Sasikala be transferred to a prison in Chennai?

AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala's lawyers are seeking to transfer her to Chennai's Puzhal Central prison from Bengaluru's Parappana Agrahara jail, according to a report in the Times of India by BV Shivashankar. 

 

An AIADMK spokersperson told ToI that it was a derserving case. "The effort to shift Sasikala is as per the provision under law," said Avadi Kumar.

 

Explaining how a transfer can be effected, A Subramani of ToI writes that the transfer is possible if the Tamil Nadu Government writes to the Karnataka Government and the latter agrees.

 

In order to set the ball rolling then, Sasikala's lawyers will have to send the request to the the Karnataka Law Minister. 

 

The special public prosecutor in the DA case, BV Acharya, has told the TOI that according the jail manual, shifting a prisoner could be decided among the top officials of the two prisions. But, he added, in the Sasikala case, since she has been imprisoned in the Karnataka jail as per the apex court's orders, any change to that could be challenged at the SC. 

 

In 2003, the 66.45 crore DA case which was being heard in Tamil Nadu was shifted to a Karnataka Court on basis of DMK General secretary K Anbazhagan's petition. This was to ensure that the AIADMK which was in power at that time, did not influence the case and interfere with witnesses. In 2014, a special court in Bengaluru convicted Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and two others, awarding them each four years in prison and a total fine of Rs.130 crore.