The Tamil Nadu police on Sunday issued a notice restraining V.K. Sasikala from using the AIADMK flag in her vehicle and also restricted the number of vehicles following her from Bengaluru to Chennai to five.
The Krishnagiri police on Sunday issued notice to K.S. Arivazhagan, AMMK district secretary, making it clear that no vehicle including that of Ms. Sasikala shall use the AIADMK party flag. Only five vehicles would be allowed to follow her car and others would be stopped. Bursting crackers, playing of music, erection of arches/banners/etc. would not be permitted.
The instructions were issued in view of the prevailing law and order situation and also COVID-19 safety measures and any violation would attract legal action as per law, the police said in the notice.
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A special team has been formed to intercept her when she crosses the Tamil Nadu border and insist on the removal of the party flag from Ms. Sasikala’s vehicle. Senior Ministers had complained to the DGP about the misuse of the flag by her a week ago upon her release from a Bengaluru prison.
“Using the ruling party flag might create confusion and lead to a law and order problem. Huge police deployment has been planned along the route from the State border with Karnataka till Chennai to prevent any untoward incident en route,” a police officer said.
DGP J.K. Tripathy reviewed the arrangements with senior police officers, including Special DGP (Law & Order) Rajesh Das, Commissioner of Police Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, IGP/Chief of Intelligence Eswaramoorthy and others.
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In Chennai, sources said no permission had been sought for any rally or meeting by AMMK cadre or Ms. Sasikala’s supporters.
Police sources did not rule out the possibility of Ms. Sasikala attempting to visit the AIADMK headquarters to pay tributes to Jayalalithaa’s statue. Banners, flags and other temporary structures along the route would be removed, they said.
Ms. Sasikala is likely to leave the resort near Nandi Hills after 9 a.m.