After experiencing a luxurious lifestyle at the posh Poes Garden residence of late J Jayalalithaa, the ambitious VK Sasikala had a hard time adjusting to life as an ordinary inmate on the first day of her incarceration in the high security Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Denied the privilege of a TV, mineral water, 24x7 hot water, a cot, a helper, a private single room and home cooked food that she sought from the Special Court judge, Sasikala refused to eat the two chapattis, one ragi ball, 200 gm of rice and 150 gm of sambar given by the prison for dinner on Wednesday night.
Prisoner number 9234, as Sasikala is now known in Parappana Agrahara prison, spent a restless night in the 10X8 cell given to her as she was unable to get a sound sleep on the straw mattress and blanket provided by the jail.
A prison source confirmed that she was restless and was put in an ordinary cell that she had to share with two other inmates.
While Sasikala is ‘kaidi number 9234’, Elavarasi and VN Sudhakaran are number 9235 and 9236 respectively.
Sasikala will be in jail for three years and 11 months out of the four-year sentence awarded by the trial court.
“Chinnamma could not sleep well and was restless as she had to sleep on the floor in a 10x8 feet ordinary cell in the women’s barracks,” the AIADMK’s Karnataka unit secretary, V Pugazhendhi, told reporters.
Expressing anguish over her plight and harsh conditions in which women inmates live in prisons, Pugazhendi said Sasikala woke up at 5 am, did yoga and walked in the barracks for a while.
“She also read a couple of Tamil newspapers, had lemon rice for breakfast at 7.30 am and a frugal meal of sambar and rice for lunch at 12.30,” said Pugazhendi.
Sasikala, her sister-in-law Elavarasi and nephew VK Sudhakaran were in the same jail from September 27 to October 18, 2014 after the trial court held them guilty of corruption in a Disproportionate Assets case along with late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who died on December 5 in Chennai.