The principal special court for CBI cases on Monday sent AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala’s relative Sreedaladevi and her husband S.R. Baskaran alias ‘RBI Baskaran’ to prison in a two-decade-old disproportionate wealth case.
On November 24, 1997, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked a case against Baskaran, a former employee of the Reserve Bank of India, and Sreedaladevi under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
In 1998, the CBI seized 80 gold bars from a locker maintained by Mr. Baskaran at the Santhome branch of the Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative (TNSC) Bank, apart from impounding several incriminating documents that proved accumulation of wealth through illegal means. Baskaran, a native of Mannargudi in Thanjavur district, was involved in the finance business before he joined the RBI as a Clerk/Coin Note Examiner (Grade II) on December 14, 1988. He got married on August 26, 1990.
According to the CBI, the couple possessed ill-gotten assets valued at ₹2,25,95,178. The trial court in 2008 sentenced them to five and three years’ rigorous imprisonment respectively. Last year, the Madras High Court confirmed the conviction and sentences imposed by a trial court while dismissing their appeals.
The couple surrendered before the principal special judge for CBI cases A. Thiruneelaprasad, who sent them to prison.
