Expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala discharged from Bengaluru hospital after recovering from COVID-19

Bengaluru: Expelled AIADMK leader VK Sasikala was discharged from a hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday after recovering from COVID-19, days after she was set free by the prison officials on completion her jail term in a corruption case, authorities said. The family has decided to take Sasikala, close aide of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, to Chennai, sources close to her said, adding the hospital has advised her to be under self-quarantine for sometime. Sasikala was admitted to the Victoria Hospital after she tested positive for COVID-19 recently while under judicial custody. Prison authorities in Bengaluru had formally released her on 27 January after she completed the four-year jail term in a Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case. On the advice of doctors, she remained in the hospital and was discharged on Sunday after her latest test reports came negative for COVID-19, hospital officials said. A huge crowd of her supporters greeted Sasikala as she came out of the hospital. More than 300 police personnel were deployed in the area to ensure law and order, police said. Sambasivan, one of her supporters from Hosur in the border district of Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu, told PTI that this was like a festival for him. Her release comes ahead of the Assembly elections likely in April-May this year in Tamil Nadu.