AIADMK cadres thrashed expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa's husband Lingeswaran Thilagan and their legal representatives on Wednesday when they visited the party headquarters in Chennai.
Some reports suggest that Lingeswaran and his legal representatives had arrived at the Royapettah AIADMK office to file nomination for the post of General Secretary.
Thanthi TV reports that they were accosted by AIADMK cadres before they presented the letter. Around 100 AIADMK cadres were present at the office when the incident took place. Chennai police had to intervene to help rescue Lingeswaran and others from the angry mob.
Pictures showed a bloodied lawyer being taken away by the police. He was later admitted to a hospital.
#WATCH: Suspended AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa's lawyer attacked outside party office by AIADMK workers in Chennai. pic.twitter.com/dPVFERmPIx
— Dalit RightsActivist (@GujDalitRights) December 28, 2016
AIADMK spokesperson CR Saraswathi told reporters that Sasikala Pushpa’s side had provoked cadres with all her statements against Jayalalithaa in the past.
Later in the day, Pushpa's husband Lingeshwaran was arrest by Chennai police and was remanded to judicial custody. He has been booked under five sections of IPC - 144 (unlawful assembly), 448 (trespassing), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief causing damage), 506 [2] (criminal intimidation). The complaint was originally filed by an AIADMK functionary named Ravichandran.
The incident comes a day before AIADMK’s general council and executive committee meeting in Chennai. Late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala Natarajan is expected to be made general secretary of the party.
Sasikala Pushpa was expelled from the AIADMK in July following an altercation with DMK MP Trichy Siva at the New Delhi airport. Soon after her expulsion, the Rajya Sabha MP alleged that her "life was under threat" in the floor of the House. “My life and dignity is under threat. Will the government save me?... I am being harassed. I need protection. In Tamil Nadu, I don’t have safety,” she told the Rajya Sabha on August 1.
Following Jayalalithaa's demise, Sasikala Pushpa approached the Madras High Court against Sasikala Natarajan being elected as the AIADMK general secretary.
Pushpa contends that Sasikala is not eligible for the post as the party bye-laws mandate that a contestant must be a primary member for at least five years. Sasikala Natarajan had been expelled by Jayalalithaa in 2011 for conspiring against her, and this made her ineligible to contest. Moreover, the expelled MP points out that Jayalalithaa had never given her an MLA or a councillor seat.
Pushpa has also filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking a judicial inquiry into Jayalalithaa's death. She said that the late CM's death was "suspicious" as her medical condition was not disclosed, no one was allowed to visit her at Apollo Hospital, her funeral photograph had also showed embalming marks.