Sasikala's parole plea to meet ailing husband rejected

The prison authorities in Karnataka on Tuesday rejected on “technical grounds” the parole plea of jailed All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader V K Sasikala to meet her ailing husband who is awaiting a liver transplant at a Chennai hospital.

Sasikala had applied for 15-day parole on Monday, seeking temporary release to attend to her ailing husband, M Natarajan, 74, who is in the liver intensive care unit of a corporate hospital since last month following kidney and liver failure.

According to doctors, he is awaiting transplantation of a deceased donor’s liver and a kidney.

“The plea has been rejected on technical grounds. The paperwork was not done properly due to which the application has been rejected,” top sources in the government said.

Sasikala can file a fresh application for parole, the official sources said.

The jail superintendent had said earlier that the legal cell was considering her plea.

Sasikala has been in jail since February after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction by a special court in a disproportionate assets case. Her relatives Ilavarasi and V N Sudhakaran are also serving four-year jail terms.

Sasikala’s nephew and sidelined AIADMK leader T T V Dinakaran had also said in Chennai on Monday that she had applied for a 15-day parole to meet her ailing husband.