On Thursday afternoon, an hour after Government Advocate V.M. Rajendran informed the Madras High Court that the 125 odd AIADMK legislators supporting V.K. Sasikala were at the Legislators’ Hostel campus on Sivananda Salai, a visit by this correspondent showed that most rooms of ruling party legislators were locked.
AIADMK MLA R. Murugaiya Pandian's locked room at the MLA Hostel in Chennai on Thursday.
The campus sported a deserted look. Only the AIADMK legislators’ cars with Jayalalithaa’s portrait and party flags were parked on the campus. The vehicles’ registration number plates suggested that they belong to the MLAs of constituencies from out of Chennai but they were not on the campus.
Except for the security guards posted in all the blocks and the maintenance staff, very few persons (predictably legislators’ relatives or house-keepers) were seen on the premises.
Almost all the rooms in the B-Block were locked. Even in the canteens, which are located within the campus, only the maintenance staff were seen.
Advocate K. Balu and social activist ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy made a mention in the Madras High Court to move habeas corpus petitions, alleging that the AIADMK MLAs have been detained illegally so as to prevent them from extending their support to the revolting Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.
Cars lined up at the MLA Hostel. However, no MLAs were around.
When the case came up for hearing on Thursday, Mr. Rajendran said all the 130 MLAs were “free and safe in the MLAs Hostel.” The petitioners claimed that the MLAs were kept under detention against their will in a resort on the East Coast Road.
However, the Division Bench of Justices M. Jaichandren and T. Mathivanan declined to entertain the early on urgent basis as they questioned the locus standi of the petitioners in moving the habeas corpus petition to secure the MLAs.
