Even as Dindigul C Sreenivasan, the Tamil Nadu Minister for Forest insisted that he and other Ministers were parroting what was told to them by VK Sasikala about the status of Jayalalithaa, the late Chief Minister, during her hospitalisation, leaders belonging to various factions gave conflicting versions on the topic.
Deepak Jayaram, nephew of Jayalalithaa, owing allegiance to Sasikala clan, told a 24X7 TV news channel that his aunt had lost consciousness by the time the Governor and other dignitaries visited the hospital. “They were not allowed inside the room because my aunt was not conscious,” said Deepak, who had performed the last rites of Jayalalithaa along with Sasikala.
Former Minister Ponnaiyan, who had initially declared that Jayalalithaa had nominated Sasikala as her legal heir and subsequently jumped fence to cast his lot with Panneerselvam, said on Monday that he was forced to repeat what Sasikala had told him about Jayalalithaa’s health.
Ponnaiyan was the one who had flaunted the copy of a fixed deposit certificate reportedly made by Jayalalithaa in which she had mentioned that Sasikala would be the beneficiary of the deposit in the eventuality of her preceding Sasikala. He was also one of the first set of leaders who pleaded with Sasikala to take over the posts of general secretary and chief minister for effective implementation of Amma’s programmes.
TTV Dinakaran, leading the Sasikala faction, said that his family was ready to depose before any commission of enquiry to be set up by the government to probe the factors behind Jayalalithaa’s death. “We are also ready to hand over the video shot by my aunt (Sasikala) of Jayalalithaa watching TV in her hospital room. Though we do have pictures of Jayalalithaa taken during her hospitalisation, it would not be fair for us to release them as she was in her hospital dress,” said a confident looking Dinakaran.
The Opposition DMK, which on Sunday demanded a CBI probe into Jayalalithaa’s death opeed another battlefront against the Palaniswamy Government by approaching the Madras High Court with a petition pleading disqualification of Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and 11 AIADMK MlAs who had voted against the Government in the trust vote held on February 18.