Former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader VK Sasikala on Monday morning left for Tamil Nadu from the Bengaluru hotel she was staying in after being discharged from hospital.

Visuals showed the former AIADMK leader leaving in a car and greeting followers with folded hands.

Earlier in the day, members of pro-Kannada organisations in Bengaluru removed Tamil signboards near the resort where Sasikala was staying.

"She came out of jail after her sentence and is staying here. But putting Tamil boards here when she's about to go back today is wrong," said a protester.

Sasikala is returning to Tamil Nadu today after completing her quarantine in Bengaluru. She will stay at her niece J Krishnapriya's residence in Chennai's T Nagar area.

Krishnapriya is the daughter of J Ilavarasi, Sasikala's sister-in-law. Posters welcoming Sasikala have been put up in T Nagar ahead of her return to the state.

The leader was discharged on January 31 from Bengaluru's Victoria hospital where she was undergoing COVID-19 treatment. She has been in quarantine since then.

She was officially released from judicial custody on January 27 after completing her four-year prison sentence in a disproportionate assets case.

In 2019, the Income Tax Department had attached properties worth Rs 1,600 crores belonging to her under the provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act.