Team News Riveting
Chennai, April 11
Eyeing to return to the Tamil Nadu politics, V K Sasikala today received a major setback for a Chennai court that dismissed appeal challenging her removal as General Secretary of the AIADMK in 2017.
The powerful aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Sasikala had moved the court in February last year challenging her dismissal from the AIADMK post in September 2017. The action came after she was convicted in a disproportionate assets case on February 14, 2017.
In January 2021, Sasikala was freed from the Parappana Agrahara central jail after close to four years of imprisonment. She was released after paying a Rs 10-crore fine, failing which her imprisonment would have been extended by another 13 months. In the disproportionate assets case, Jayalalithaa was the first accused.
After her release, Sasikala was desperately looking to take control over the party that was run by O Panneerselvam (OPS) and former Chief Minister E Palaniswami (EPS). The duo however did not give her room to play though the party performed badly in the last year’s assembly elections.
Sasikala had challenged her removal from the post of General Secretary on the grounds that only the party General Secretary can convene the General Council where the decision to remove her was taken. She had earlier moved the Madras High Court, but the case was transferred to the civil court, as the latter’s jurisdiction had been increased. The Chennai Civil Court has now dismissed her plea.
The court dismissed her plea following an interlocutory application from AIADMK Coordinator OPS and EPS, the party’s Legal Wing Joint Secretary AM Babu Murugavel said. The court held that Sasikala had no locus standi to contest the decision. Sasikala had moved the city civil court contending that the AIADMK general council held in 2017, which expelled her as general secretary, was not valid. The general council was held in the wake of the merger of the then separate factions headed by OPS and EPS.
