Chennai: Sidelined All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader V.K. Sasikala’s husband M. Natarajan died at a private hospital in Chennai after multiple organ failure in the early hours on Tuesday.
The 74-year-old was admitted to Gleneagles Global Health City hospital last week for chest infection and his condition was “critical”, the hospital had said.
An official release issued by the hospital said: “It is with profound grief and sorrow that we announce the sad demise of Natarajan Maruthappa at 1.35 AM today.”
Sasikala, currently lodged in a Bengaluru prison and serving a four-year jail term for possession of assets disproportionate to her income, is expected to attend the last rites of Natarajan.
The last rites will take place in Thanjavur.
Natarajan underwent a combined liver and kidney transplant surgery in October 2017 and Sasikala was then granted a five-day parole. The parole was granted on the condition that she would not be involved in any political, public or party activities.
Born in Thanjavur district, he was closely associated with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in his initial days.
A former government public relations officer for over 30 years, it was through Natarajan that Sasikala was introduced to late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa.
However, when Sasikala—a close friend of Jayalalithaa—was expelled from the AIADMK in 2011, Natarajan and 12 of their close relatives, including rebel leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, were also expelled.
While Sasikala was welcomed back, others were kept away from the party. Though Natarajan fell out of Jayalalithaa’s favour way back in the 1990s, he was removed from the primary membership of AIADMK in 2011.
Recently, the Madras high court confirmed a two-year jail term and issued a non- bailable warrant against Natarajan for evasion of customs duty while importing a luxury car from the United Kingdom in 1993.
Sasikala was sent to the Bengaluru jail in February last year, after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction by a lower court in the disproportionate assets case.