HC directs Karnataka govt to file final report on 'preferential' treatment to Sasikala in jail

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the state government to submit a final report within two months into the FIR registered by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) into alleged preferential treatment given to VK Sasikala, aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, when she was serving her sentence at the central prison at Bengaluru, violating prison norms.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order after the state government informed the court that an FIR was registered by the ACB in 2018 and four months time was required to file the report in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Noting that there was a delay in the investigation, the court declined to give four months time sought by the government to file the final report. It directed the state government to submit the final report as expeditiously as possible within two months.

In her public interest litigation petition, social worker and educationist KS Gita (65), from Alwarpet in Chennai, had prayed to the court to issue directions to the authorities to submit a final report on the alleged corruption in providing facilities to Sasikala when she was serving her sentence with regard to the multi-crore corruption case against Jayalalithaa.

In response to it, the court had issued a notice to the Chief Secretary, secretaries of the departments of Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Home, Director General and Superintendent of Prisons, on the last date of hearing. In response to it, the government on Friday informed the court that the ACB had registered an FIR in 2018 into the allegations.

In the petition, the petitioner drew the attention of the court to the detailed report with findings submitted by a retired IAS officer, Vinay Kumar, after holding an inquiry into allegations of providing preferential facilities to Sasikala and her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi.The petitioner also claimed that no final report was submitted on the investigation done so far.