CHENNAI: On February 15, V K Sasikala , will complete half of her four-year jail term at Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru.If no other prison offences stand in her way, she will be eligible for an early release for good conduct during incarceration. As per Karnataka parole and furlough rules, all prisoners who have completed at least two-thirds of their long-term or short-term sentences, are eligible for early release though a statutory advisory board considers the issue on a case-by-case basis.It was on February 15, 2017, that Sasikala was taken to jail, along with her sister-in-law J Elavarasi and nephew V N Sudhagaran, to serve four-year imprisonment in the infamous Rs 66.65-crore disproportionate assets case. Yet, there has been no sign of their ill-gotten property being confiscated, nor efforts made to recover the Rs 10 crore fine imposed on each of them.“There are too many agencies empowered to appropriate the properties, as a conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act has attained finality,” said Justice K Chandru, former judge of Madras high court . “While Karnataka government is duty-bound to execute court orders on the collection of fine from the convicts, Tamil Nadu directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC) should write to revenue authorities for taking possession of identified ill-gotten assets.”The Tamil Nadu government ought to have invoked provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (CLAA) and taken possession of the properties treating them as proceeds of crime, and enforcement directorate (ED) should have stepped in by now, a senior jurist said.Justice Chandru also faulted the I-T department for having kept mum these years though Jayalalithaa’s properties had been lying for attachment since 2007 for unpaid dues of more than Rs 16 crore.Another judge, who did not want to be quoted, told TOI that there would be third-party interests on these properties if the convicts’ families had transferred ownership of these assets after Karnataka high court overturned the trial court’s order on May 11, 2015, and gave a clean chit to Jayalalithaa and others.It was on September 27, 2014, that the special court in Karnataka awarded four-year jail term each and imposed Rs 100cr fine on Jayalalithaa, and Rs 10cr each on the other three.

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