JOIN USWanted by the Tamil Nadu Police for the last 11 days, V Divakaran, younger brother of Sasikala Natarajan, the estranged former confidante of the AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalitha, was arrested near Tiruchirappalli in the wee hours of Friday.
Divakaran is the first close kin of Sasikala who has been nabbed since the latter along with about 20 of her family members were expelled by Jayalalitha in December last year to rid the party and the Government of undue interference by ‘Sassikala’s caucus’ acting as extra-constitutional authority.
Divarakan has been arrested for his alleged role in the demolition of the house of one Ms Kasthuri, near Needamangalam in Tiruvarur district some time back. Kasthuri had filed a Police complaint against Divakaran and six others recently after Jayalalitha had initiated action to purge the party and Government of all traces of Sassikala’s influence, sources said.
Soon after, Divakaran went into hiding and nine special Police parties had been formed to nab him, police sources in Tiruvarur said. Divakaran’s wife Hemalatha was also questioned a few days back by the police. However, acting on a tip-off that Divakaran was traveling by a car to Mannargudi, police intercepted the vehicle and arrested him around midnight.
After being produced before the jurisdictional Magistrate in Needamangalam on Friday, Divakaran was later lodged in the Tiruchirappalli Central jail, police sources said.
This arrest comes a week after Mr M R P Raavanan, another relative of Sasikala was apprehended by the Coimbatore Police on a complaint by a civil contractor, V Ramkumar of Sirumagai, charging Raavanan with various offences like abduction for ransom, extortion.
Raavanan was alleged to be acting as an extra-constitutional functionary at Jayalalitha’s Poes Garden residence in Chennai before he was expelled from the party along with Sasikala and the others. Raavanan has since been lodged in the Central Prison at suburban Puzhal here.
“Jayalalitha takes action against even her own party-men’s wrongdoing,” remarked senior AIADMK Minister, Natham Viswanathan.