Deposed AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, who is serving a four-year jail term at the Bengaluru prison, visited her critically ill husband M. Natarajan at the Gleneagles Global Health city hospital on Saturday.
Despite restrictions, a huge crowd gathered in front of her relative’s T Nagar residence and also near the hospital. Cadres' screams of Thyaga Thai Chinnamma rent the air. While the cabinet ministers of the Edappadi Palaniswami government chose to stay away, seniors like MP Vijila Satyanand were seen waiting outside to get a glimpse of their leader who is out on parole. Draped in a violet saree with a high neck blouse and her hair neatly tied like the departed Jayalalithaa, Sasikala wore a gentle smile and greeted everyone with a traditional vanakkam.
She was accompanied by her nephew Vivek Jayaraman, as she set out to call on her critically ill husband Natarajan at the hospital around 11am. Sasikala spent about two hours in the hospital—a tracheostomy was performed on Friday. The medical bulletin released by the hospital said, “He is awake and oriented and is on ventilator support through tracheostomy, which was performed on October 6. As in any other combined liver and kidney transplant surgeries, his condition will be critical for the next few days.”
Sasikala, after being briefed by the doctors about her husband’s health, reportedly moved back to her relative’s residence. Though she did not engage in any political activity on the first day of her parole, there were several posters and banners in front of the T Nagar house, welcoming her.
Sasikala, who travelled 340km by road from Bengaluru to Chennai on Friday, chose to stay at her niece Krishna Priya’s place in Chennai. The latter is the daughter of J. Ilavarasi, who is also serving four year jail term in the disproportionate assets case, along with Sasikala. Ilavarasi is married to Sasikala’s brother Jayaraman, who died from an electric shock while working at Jayalalithaa’s Hyderabad farm house in the early 90s.
