Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s aide and known as “Chinnamma”

VK Sasikala is expected to be released from prison soon, said her lawyer on Wednesday. She has paid the ₹ 10 crore fine to the Court in a disproportionate assets case. Sashikala’s lawyer N. Raja Senthoor Pandian said the fine was deposited at a Court in Bengaluru through demand drafts.

The court is now expected to inform prison authorities about the payment of fine and “I expect her to be free soon, earlier than the scheduled release date of January 27, 2021,” he added. Sashikala’s two relatives, who too were jailed for four years and fined ₹ 10 crore in the assets case, are in the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail as well. Sashikala’s lawyer said the process to pay the fine for the two others was also being taken up.

In 2017, after the Supreme Court restored the Bengaluru trial court judgment against Ms Sasikala and her two relatives, V N Sudhakaran and J Elavarasi in the assets case, the former Chief Minister’s confidante surrendered before the Karnataka court on February 15, 2017, and she has been serving her sentence since then.