Rajinikanth's wife-run school locked up over rent issues

A school run by Rajinikanth's wife was locked up by the landlord of the campus on Wednesday, August 16, over rent issues with the management. About 400 students have now been shifted to new premises at Velacherry.

The Latha Rajinikanth-run Ashram Matriculation School had a dispute over rent for the last few years and now plans to sue the owner Venkateshvaralu for forcing them to vacate the place.

"Taking the law into his hands and without any information, once again, the landlord has created immense agony to the school, children, parents and management today," PTI quoted the school management as saying in a statement.

R Padma, the daughter of the landlord, told Deccan Chronicle that the agreement between the two parties expired in 2013. She accused the management of not paying the rent on time and claimed that the defendant has a balance of Rs 10 crore towards rent. A part of the building and 14 grounds had been leased to the school a decade ago.

The complainant took the issue to the court claiming that Ashram Matriculation School has not paid the rent of Rs 10 crore, but the defendant's lawyer told the court that the school management would pay Rs 2 crore and vacate the place by May 2018.

As per the school management, the owner has been demanding exorbitant price as rent. "We have been running our school in the premises of Guindy for more than a decade now. We have faced a lot of harassment in the recent past due to the landlord's family disputes," the management said, according to The NewsMinute.

Last year, the school was in the news for failing to pay the salaries of its drivers for months. The management had claimed that the cash crunch situation arose due to the demonetisation drive.