After coming out of prison, Pillai said he was treated inhumanly by the state government. "Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan is personally trying to make life harder for me in jail. I have sustained the ordeal because of the goodwill and support given by the jail officials," Kerala's former power and transport minister said. "I was a prisoner during the Emergency days and this period was worse than those days," he added.
Pillai also said he had been denied parole earlier owing to political vendetta and that he had suffered heavily in the Thiruvananthapuram central prison. "Being a former minister of prisons and jails I am entitled for 'A Class' prisoner status but was denied that by the state government. The CM is settling personal and political scores," he added.
The SC had, on February 10, reversed the Kerala high court judgment which acquitted Pillai in the graft case. Since the then Congress government in Kerala did not challenge the high court order, Achuthanandan, who was then leader of the opposition, had moved the SC challenging the acquittal.
