Jayalalithaa's former aide Sasikala's brother arrested

V Divaharan, brother of Sasikala Natarajan, a former aide of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, was arrested in Tiruchiraappalli late on Thursday night in connection with a house demolition case, the police said.


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Divaharan was arrested by a police team engaged in vehicle checking at Ariyamangalam in the city. Later, he was remanded to 15 days custody by a Judicial Magistrate in Needamangalam in Tiruvarur district, the police said. He was lodged in the central prison in Tiruchiraappalli early on Friday.

One Kasturi in Rishiyur village in Needamangalam had last month filed a complaint to the anti-land grabbing cell at Thiruvarur alleging that a gang at the "instigation of Divaharan" had demolished her house, constructed under Indira Awaas Yojana, and also a thatched shed in Rishiyur on November 26 last year.

In her complaint, she alleged that Divaharan was angry with her family as her husband had worked for Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidates during the assembly elections and local body polls.

Divaharan is second member from Sasikala's family to face police action.

On January 27, Ravanan, another relative of Sasikala, was arrested in Coimbatore on charges of abduction for ransom, extortion and criminal conspiracy. He was also named as an accused in a Rs one crore cheating case by a Tirupur-based industrialist.

Jayalalithaa had on December 19 last year expelled Sasikala and her family members, often considered a power centre in the party, from the organisation's primary membership.