In an interaction with media persons at the end of polling in RK Nagar bye-elections, TTV Dhinakaran claimed that he had no prior knowledge of Vetrivel planning to release the video.
He said, “I was at home in the morning because of a fever and at around 10 am, I was asked to watch TV. Then I saw this. Vetrivel then came home and apologized to me. I asked him why he did it before elections and that it was unnecessary as people will think I made him do it.”
On Vetrivel’s motives, TTV said, “I don't think he did it for personal gain. He did it out of emotion. He wanted to remove the taint that had befallen Chinamma’s name when many people blamed her for Amma’s death. He wanted to protect her as she is his General Secretary.”
Addressing questions on his involvement with the video itself, TTV Dhinakaran said, “I never advertised that I had a video. I merely confirmed the existence of it. I have also said before that if summoned, I would give the video to the investigating team. And I made clear that this video should not be outed in the public domain. We had taken a call early on that we would not publish it as Amma was in a nightie in the video.”
When Dhinakaran allegedly asked Vetrivel the same question, Vetrivel apparently said, “It is not wrong for Amma to be in nightie. All women at home are wearing nightie only.”
TTV also indicated that the video was shot some time in November 2016, “after Amma came out of ICU.”
TTV added, “When Chinamma went to jail, around February- March, I asked her for the video as it might be useful at some point. I asked her as she was General Secretary of the party.”
Emphasising that Vetrivel was a close personal friend and he was not trying to protect him, TTV Dhinakaran said, “Vetrivel couldn't attend the funeral of Amma. He had undergone bypass (surgery) at the time. So he asked me for the video.”
Vetrivel had apparently taken Sasikala’s permission to release the video.
In an “ultimate sacrifice”, Vetrivel told TTV that he would face the consequences for his action, go to jail, come out, meet Sasikala and apologize.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu said on Wednesday that the penalty for a poll code violation under Section 126(b) is two years imprisonment.
On Wednesday, P Vetrivel, disqualified MLA and supporter of TTV Dhinakaran released a video to the media in which Jayalalithaa is seen in hospital, sipping a glass of juice, and presumably watching TV.
This caused a political ruckus in Tamil Nadu with people questioning the timing and motive of releasing the video. As it was done one day before the bye-polls, the Election Commission stopped TV channels from broadcasting the video. Complaints were registered against P Vetrivel by both the Election Commission as well as the one man Arumughasamy commission investigating the death of Jayalalithaa.