It was he who persuaded his reluctant family to agree to the settlement offered by the group so that there would be no ill-feelings within the family, wrote the CM. His article accompanied photographs of the former corporate office of the Sun Group, which was allegedly ransacked when they were asked to vacate the premises.

Terming the controversial survey published by Sun Group’s vernacular daily Dinakaran in May, 2007 — which slighted Karunanidhi’s elder son M K Azhagiri by placing him in the last of a list of potential heir to the DMK president — as a deliberate attempt to create rift in his family, Karunanidhi said the Marans had gone ahead with publishing the survey despite his specific instruction not to do so.

In his attempt to “clear the allegations”, Dayanidhi told the media that Kalanidhi had written a letter to Karunanidhi, detailing their version of the allegations. “For the past one-and-a-half years, my family has been keeping quiet about the allegations raised against us. But now we have realised that if we do not clear the air, the general public might perceive these false charges as truth,” he said, refusing to elaborate on the contents of the letter.

He claimed that they possessed photographs and videos depicting the condition of the office building when they vacated it.

Dayanidhi hastened to add that the letter was not a counter the CM but a clarification to present their side of the story. Incidentally, there was no mention about his statement on the Sun News on Friday.