Circumstances of Jayalalithaa's death stoke fresh controversy in Tamil Nadu

Probe to be conducted on circumstances leading to her hospitalisation and demise

A year after the demise of Tamil Nadu’s political icon J Jayalalithaa, fresh controversy has been stoked as the state government has appointed an inquiry commission to probe the circumstances leading to her hospitalisation, following which she is said to have succumbed to her illness on December 5, 2016.

The commission is to be headed by a retired Madras High Court judge after contradictory accounts related to the ex-CM surfaced, as several ministers claimed to have met her during her illness at the hospital. The single member Commission was constituted by the state government on September 25 and will be led by Justice A Arumughaswamy.

Earlier this week, the state’s co-operation minister, Sellur K Raju, said that all the ministers had visited Jayalalithaa in the hospital during her treatment.

This is in contradiction to the recent statement by another minister from the Edappadi K Palaniswami government, C Sreenivasan, who said that no ministers were allowed to meet Jayalalithaa in the hospital and he had earlier lied that he met the former chief minister while she was in the hospital.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Chennai, where she was under treatment for around 10 months.  According to the hospital, the former AIDAMK chief was suffering from high fever, pneumonia, thyroid and high blood pressure, apart from being diagnosed with a high sugar level.

Apollo Hospitals had, in an initial press statement after her hospitalisation, said that she had been suffering from fever and dehydration. 

Revenue Minister R B Udhayakumar said that the ministers might have spoken from their personal experience and the matter is before the inquiry commission now. He added that he would share the information with the Commission during the inquiry. Another Minister, O S Manian, said that he was briefed by the Health Minister and Apollo Hospitals management on the health condition of Jayalalithaa when she was admitted in the hospital.

Apollo Hospitals founder and chairman, Prathap C Reddy, on Wednesday, welcomed the institution of the Judicial Commission, while assuring that the medical institution took all measures to ensure proper treatment to the ailing AIADMK leader. The senior officials from the hospital told reporters that it has submitted the documents to the government.

The opposition parties have raised several questions related to the hospitalisation as well as the dissemination of information related to Jayalalithaa’s health during her hospitalisation. Opposition leader and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK’s) working President M K Stalin on Thursday sought for a CBI investigation into the matter.