[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Judicial enquiry ordered days after Tamil Nadu’s forest minister hinted that AIADMK chief’s family and kin had a role in her death

Days after Tamil Nadu’s forest minister Dindigul Sreenivasan issued a public apology claiming that the party’s top brass “lied” about the medical condition of deceased AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa and indicated that her family had a role to play in her death, the Tamil Nadu government delivered on its promise of a judicial inquiry into the chief minister’s mysterious death in December last year.

The Edappadi Palaniswami-led state government, on Monday, appointed retired Madras High Court judge Justice A Arumughaswamy to probe the circumstances in which Amma died at Chennai’s Apollo Hospital on December 5 last year – 75 days after she was wheeled into the facility for treatment of fever and dehydration.

“A government order has been issued to set up an inquiry commission headed by retired judge of the high court Justice Arumughaswamy to probe Jayalalithaa’s death and submit a report,” a brief statement by the state’s information department said.

Last month, in a bid to broker a truce with the party’s rival faction led by O Panneerselvam, Palaniswami had agreed to his demand of setting up a judicial probe to look into the circumstances leading to the demise of Jayalalithaa. Days later, while the Panneerselvam and Palaniswami factions of AIADMK united and the former returned to join the state government as chief minister, the third rival faction led by Jayalalithaa’s close aide and party’s now sidelined chief, the jailed VK Sasikala, and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran continued their machinations to destabilise the state government.

However, the biggest shocker on the mystery behind Jayalalithaa’s death had come on Friday when Sreenivasan claimed that no political leader – including Panneerselvam (OPS) who was then the acting chief minister – was allowed by Amma’s family members and closest aide, VK Sasikala, to see the AIADMK chief during the 75 days that she was admitted in the Apollo hospital- from September 22 till her death on December 5.

Sreenivasan was referring to the several claims made by OPS, his ministerial colleagues in Tamil Nadu and various AIADMK functionaries during the time when Jayalalithaa was in hospital – each of whom claimed to have paid her a visit in the hospital and many who gave media bytes about her condition, what she enquired about or what she ate.

“The claims made by us that she ate idlis in hospital were a total lie, because none of the ministers were allowed to meet her in the hospital and none of us knew the reality,” Sreenivasan said, adding: “There were several leaders who visited the hospital, but all of them were allowed only up to the first floor. Beyond that no one was allowed. All were made to sit on chairs or on the floor and after a chat left. Nobody saw Amma”.

“The family did not allow anybody near Amma during her hospitalisation. They alone know how Amma died and they are responsible,” Sreenivasan had said, in a comment that expectedly put renewed focus on rumours that Jayalalithaa’s death was not ‘natural’ and that her family members or the jailed Sasikala may have had a role to play in the death.

Sasikala’s nephew and the now sidelined AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran – who for the past few weeks has been trying to unseat Palaniswami from the chief minister’s chair – has dismissed Sreenivasan’s charges.

On Monday, hours before the Palaniswami government appointed Justice Arumughaswamy to lead the judicial probe into Jayalalithaa’s death, Dhinakaran revealed to the media that Sasikala had shot a video of the ailing Amma while she was hospitalized.

“CCTV footages are available with the hospital. We have a footage shot by Chinnamma (Sasikala), after insisted by Jayalalithaa over her weight loss (sic),” Dhinakaran told reporters, adding that Jayalalithaa was in her night wear and was watching television when the video was shot.

“When asked by him (pointing to his confidante and RK Nagar poll in-charge, P Vetrivel) if the footage could be used during RK Nagar bypolls, Sasikala said no. She told us to seek setting up inquiry commission ourselves and submit the video footage at an appropriate time. We are ready to give to any inquiry panel, CBI or whatever. We are not scared,” Dhinakaran said.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]