IT officials question Sasikala at prison in DA case

Income Tax officials Thursdayquestioned former AIADMK leader V K Sasikala at Parappana Agrahara Central Jail here, in connection with a disproportionate assets case, prison sources said.

The I-T officials arrived at the jail at 11 am and began a marathon questioning which continued late in the evening, the sources told PTI, declining to elaborate.

Sasikala, former chief minister Jayalalithaa's close aide, has been lodged in the jail since February last year, when the Supreme Court upheld her conviction by a special court here in a disproportionate assets case and sentenced her to four years imprisonment.

Sasikala, who took over the reins of AIADMK after the death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016, was later removed from the party by the Chief Minister K Palaniswami-led camp.

Her relatives Ilavarasi and V N Sudhakaran are also serving a four-year jail term in the case.

Sasikala was also in the news for getting alleged preferential treatment in the jail.

Videos went viral showing her strolling in the jail corridor in civil dress.

The then deputy inspector general of police (prisons) D Roopa who raked up the issue had even alleged that Rs two crore bribe was paid to her superiors for the privileged treatment.

Recently, the Madras High Court set aside a lower court order directing Karnataka jail authorities to produce Sasikala before it in connection with a Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) case.

Allowing a petition by Sasikala, Justice N Anand Venkatesh, directed the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court (Economic Offences-I) to conduct the proceedings through video conferencing.