BENGALURU: In a fresh trouble for former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's aide VK Sasikala and her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Karnataka filed a chargesheet against them along with four erring prison department officials with regard to the FIR registered over alleged preferential treatment given to them, while they were serving their sentence at the central prison at Bengaluru.
When the public interest litigation was taken up for hearing by the division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj on Wednesday, the government advocate informed the court that the state has accorded sanction to prosecute the accused persons under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, on December 30, 2021.
Then the counsel of ACB submitted that the investigating agency has filed the chargesheet before the competent court on January 7, 2022, following the sanction granted by the state government.
The chargesheet was filed under the provisions of IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act against six accused persons including four officials of the prison department, namely Krishna Kumar, Dr R Anitha, B Suresh, and Gajaraja Makanooru. And also against two other accused VK Shashikala and Ilavarasi.
By filing the petition in 2021, Gita, social worker and educationist KS Gita from Alwarpet in Chennai, had prayed the court to issue directions to the authorities for a final report on the alleged corruption that led to Sasikala and Ilavararasi being granted favours when they were serving their sentence in a multi-crore corruption case involving Jayalalithaa.
The petitioner sought a detailed report on the findings submitted by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar after the inquiry into the allegations of preferential treatment to Sasikala and her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi. She also claimed that no final report on the investigation done so far was submitted.
After this petition was filed, the state government informed the court that the ACB had registered an FIR in 2018 following the allegations. However, the final report/chargesheet was not filed for want of sanction against the accused persons by the state government. After the PIL was filed, the government accorded sanction and accordingly the chargesheet was filed by the ACB.
Meanwhile, the high court on January 28, 2022, stayed the sanction granted by the state government to prosecute one of the accused officials Dr R Anitha, after hearing her petition questioning the legality of the sanction.