VK Sasikala, Former Jayalalitha Aide Contracts Coronavirus In Jail, Shifted To ICU

Expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala has tested positive for COVID-19. She has been shifted to a coronavirus intensive care unit (ICU), doctors treating the 63-year-old jailed aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said on January 21. Sasikala had earlier tested negative for coronavirus. Serving her jail term at the Parappana Agrahara Prison in Bengaluru, she was admitted to the Bowring & Lady Curzon Medical College & Research Institute, also known as Bowring Hospital with fever & breathlessness on January 20, a week before her release. Sasikala's oxygen saturation level was 80 (against the normal of 95 and above) on the evening of January 20 when she was admitted to the hospital. Sasikala's nephew and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary TTV Dhinakaran, who rushed to Bengaluru on learning about her illness, told reporters she was stable. Sasikala, lodged at the Parappana Agrahara Prison, was sentenced to four years imprisonment in February 2017 in a disproportionate assets case. Her illness comes at a time when she is just six days away from her release from prison on January 27.