Chennai: M. Natarajan, husband of AIADMK leader V K Sasikala jailed in a corruption case, died at the Gleneagles Global Health City here early Tuesday.
The 74-year-old Tamil activist and editor of Puthiya Paarvai magazine, admitted to the hospital on Saturday with multiple complications arising out of rejection of his grafted liver and renal failure, breathed his last at 1.35 am. He had undergone liver and kidney transplants at the same hospital in October last year.
Serving a four-year term in the Rs.66.6 crore disproportionate assets case at the Parappana Agrahara Central Jail at Bengaluru , Sasikala obtained 15-day parole to attend husband's last rites but with a slew of conditions. Her car from the prison caught up with Natarajan's ambulance driving from Chennai, at Tiruchy and both the vehicles reached the family bungalow at Arulanda Nagar in Thanjavur late evening.
Earlier in the day, Natarajan's body was taken from the hospital to his Besant Nagar house where political leaders and Tamil nationalists paid homage. DMK working president M.K.Stalin recalled Natarajan's participation in the anti-Hindi agitation during the student days and also praised his dedication towards the Dravidian movement and love for Tamil language. He also referred to the memorial Natarajan had helped create at Thanjavur for the Tamil victims at the Mullivaikkal massacre during the final phase of the Eelam war.
Family sources said the cremation would be held at Natarajan's native Vilar village Wednesday evening. Starting his career as an assistant PRO in the information department of the TN government, Natarajan rose quickly in public reckoning and personal wealth after his wife Sasikala became close to Jayalalithaa during the last years of MGR. After the death of the AIADMK founder, Natarajan played a crucial role in ensuring that Jayalalithaa wrested the control of the party from MGR's widow Janaki and her coterie. However, Jayalalithaa expelled Natarajan later from Poes Garden suspecting him of harbouring CM ambitions.
The Madras high court had in November last year confirmed the two-year jail term awarded by a CBI court (2010) for Natarajan and three others in a case of tax evasion in import of a Lexus car in 1994.
