AIADMK succession war turns ugly, rebel MP Sasikala Pushpa’s husband arrested ahead of key party meet

Chennai: The succession war in Tamil Nadu’s ruling party AIADMK turned uglier as the state police registered an FIR against rebel party MP Sasikala Pushpa’s husband on Thursday, who was attacked by the AIADMK functionaries yesterday.
According to reports, Sasikala Pushpa’s husband Lingeswara Thilagan has been booked under five sections by the Chennai Police and is presently under detention. He is being questioned by the police in connection with the violent clash that broke outside the party office in Chennai on Wednesday.
Thilagan has been questioned following a complaint by AIADMK leaders, who have accused him of acting against the party.
Thilagan and his lawyer were attacked on Wednesday afternoon when Pushpa, who has called for an investigation into former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s death, had gone there to file nomination papers for the post of party general secretary.
On December 16, days after Jayalalithaa’s death, the party had chosen her close aide VK Sasikala Natarajan for the top post.
A spokesperson of the AIADMK said Pushpa’s lawyers had come to the party office in the morning as well.
At the time, the party members had told them they were not allowed in the premises. When they came again, a fight broke out between the AIADMK cadres and Pushpa’s representatives.
The police had to intervene to disperse the crowd. Pushpa’s husband Thilagan, seen bleeding from his nose, and her lawyers were driven off in a police jeep.
Pushpa had recently approached the Supreme Court, seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or a retired judge into the death of Jayalalithaa.
Demanding that the government release details of Jayalalithaa’s medical condition and treatment, Pushpa said the AIADMK chief’s death was “suspicious” as her actual medical condition was not disclosed, no one was allowed to visit her, her funeral photographs showed marks of embalming and everything from her hospitalisation to her death “was kept under wraps”.
Earlier, Pushpa had alleged that after she refused to resign as the party’s lawmaker following her expulsion in August, unknown persons threatened that they would distribute morphed photographs of her to all media houses and upload them on social media.
As Pushpa took legal recourse, the High Court ordered Facebook India, Google, YouTube and Twitter India not to publish or show any derogatory photographs of the expelled lawmaker.
Pushpa was expelled on August 1 after she informed Parliament that she had been slapped by an AIADMK leader in Chennai and was facing death threats.
She also alleged that a false complaint was filed against her and her family for allegedly ill-treating and sexually abusing two domestic aides in 2011.