TN Minister D Sarathkumar Denies Drug Use After Viral IPL Video, Says He Was Crushing Medicine For Sick Child

Chennai: On a day when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay was trending for stylishly sprinting during an Anti-Drug Run in Chennai, one of his cabinet colleagues, D. Sarathkumar, found himself embroiled in a controversy after an old video surfaced in which he was seen performing an action resembling that of someone snorting drugs. As the video went viral on social media, the Minister for Human Resources Management appeared with his wife and child to debunk claims that he was consuming drugs at the M. A. Chidambaram Cricket Stadium during an IPL match in Chennai.

“My child, who was one-and-a-half years old, was unwell. My wife said the baby would not consume the tablet, so I crushed it into a powder. At an IPL match, there are so many people around, and the police are also present. How is it possible to do drugs? They are misrepresenting what happened,” the minister said. His wife also endorsed his explanation, saying the incident had taken place around two years ago.

The viral video, apparently downloaded from Sarathkumar's own social media account, carried the caption “Thug Life Moment” and showed him seated next to a woman, using a credit card to make a line of white powder placed on the screen of a mobile phone, with a currency note placed alongside it, giving the appearance of drug use.

Following the minister's explanation, the DMK IT wing tweeted an image of a mobile phone, a credit card, and a currency note, labelling it “The New Baby Care Kit.”