All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader VK Sasikala’s husband Natarajan Maruthappa passed away in the wee hours of Tuesday due to multiple organ failure in Chennai’s hospital. Natarajan was 74.
An official release issued by the chief officer of Gleneagles Global Health Centre, Shanmuga Priyan, read, “"It is with profound grief and sorrow that we announce the sad demise of Natarajan Maruthappa at 1.35 AM today.”
Sasikala, who is given a jail term of four years in a disproportionate assets case and is currently lodged in the central prison in Bengaluru, is likely to attend the last rites of Natarajan.
The hospital released an official statement, saying, “Natarajan Maruthappa was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), Gleneagles Global (Hospital), on March 16 with severe chest infection.”
The body of Natarajan will be taken to their residence in Chennai.
Last week, a statement released by the hospital said that his condition was critical. “Mr Natarajan was on ventilator support and his condition is critical,” the statement read.
Natarajan had undergone a double organ transplant in October last year and was discharged only after having recovered completely. Sasikala visited her husband at that time after requesting for a 15 days parole to visit her critically ill husband.
Natarajan had a condition in which his liver and kidney were failing, along with a lung congestion, before the twin organ transplant. He underwent Tracheostomy in October last year and was on ventilator support before being discharged.
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Natarajan, a former government public relations officer for 33 years, had married Sasikala in 1973. He was the first person to introduce Sasikala to the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Natarajan was one among Sasikala’s relatives who was expelled by Jayalalithaa from her home in Poes Garden as they were accused of working against the chief minister’s interest. TTV Dhinakaran, too, was one among those thrown out.
Jayalalithaa accepted Sasikala back on her side, but with the condition that Sasikala would end all the ties with her family, including Natarajan.
Sasikala accepted her last name Natarajan after this and took her prefix VK and reverted to her maiden name soon after being appointed as the general secretary of the AIADMK party.
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