Chennai: Two more people, allegedly upset over Ms Jayalalithaa's conviction in an illegal assets case, committed suicide on Tuesday, as protests against her conviction continued across Tamil Nadu for the fourth day.
With this, the toll of those believed to have died in different parts of the state unable to bear the four-year jail term awarded to Ms Jayalalithaa since September 27 has risen to 18. Ten of them were stated to have died of cardiac arrest.
In the fresh incidents, a 17-year-old girl died of burns at a hospital in Madurai, a day after she set herself ablaze at her house in Ezhumalai while a 35-year-old AIADMK member died after consuming poison in Thondamuthur in Coimbatore, the police said.
Rajinikanth, working in an aluminium fabrication unit, had appeared disturbed over the verdict in the past three days and his family members, who had gone to attend a protest by the party, found him lying unconscious with an empty pesticide bottle and photograph of Ms Jayalalithaa by his side on Monday night, police said quoting one of his relatives.
He died without responding to treatment at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.
In Chennai, a police constable allegedly tried to douse himself with kerosene near the police headquarters apparently upset over Jayalalithaa's conviction, but was overpowered and taken into custody for inquiry, police said.
Protesters at all venues hailed Jayalalithaa as the “people's Chief Minister", a line parroted by the party-backed televsion channel.
