The Justice Arumughaswamy Commission, which probed the factors leading to the demise of former Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa. has blamed VK Sasikala, the close confidante of the former, and three others for ill-treating Amma during her illness
Dr KS Sivakumar, a close relation of Sasikala, J Radhakrishnan, the then Health Secretary of Tamil Nadu Government and C Vijayabaskar, the then Health Minister, are the three others against whom the needle of suspicion is pointed.
The commission has called for a thorough investigation into the roles of Sasikala, Dr Sivakumar, Radhakrishnan and Vijayabaskar. The commission also said there was total secrecy behind the treatment given to Jayalalithaa.
“Sasikala and her gang had hijacked the entire process and they kept the entire State administration in the dark about the medical status of Jayalalithaa,” said the report that runs into 440 pages.
Justice Arumughaswamy, a former judge of Madras High Court, was appointed to head a Commission of Enquiry to probe the factors that led to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa on September 22, 2016.
This was one of the demands put forward by O Panneerselvam for returning to the AIADMK after he was expelled from the party in 2017. Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5, 2016, days after Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Dr Pratap C Reddy had said she was recovering and it was for her to decide when to leave the hospital.
The commission substantiates what The Pioneer has been writing all these years. Justice Arumughaswamy, who probed the events starting from the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa, has expressed doubts and reservations about the behaviour of Sasikala and her family members towards the former Chief Minister.
Though Sasikala and her relations were ousted from Veda Nilayam, the personal bungalow of Jayalalithaa in November 2011, the former managed to return back to the residence within months.