Sasikala, Jaya’s medical adviser differ over hospitalisation details

CHENNAI: The controversy over the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has deepened after differing versions of the sequence of events leading up to her hospitalisation were reportedly furnished by her close aide VK Sasikala and her personal medical adviser KS Sivakumar.

Sources privy to the investigation being conducted by a judicial commission, headed by retired judge justice Arumughasamy, say differences have emerged in the time given for Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation and the exact time when she fainted in her bungalow. Jayalalithaa was in hospital for 75 days till December 2016 and her death triggered a messy succession battle in the state.

In his affidavit, Sivakumar reportedly spoke of receiving a phone call from Sasikala on September 22, 2016, allegedly informing him that Jayalalithaa was suffering from cold and fever. Sasikala’s affidavit reported no such phone call, reported the Economic Times.

The two also differed on the exact sequence of events before Jayalalithaa fainted, CNN-News 18 reported. The commission was set up by the state government following rumours and conspiracy theories around her death.“For the past eight months commission has been inquiring bureaucrats, politicians, doctors and staff who were working at Poes garden (Jayalalithaa’s then residence) and at regular intervals the documents, videos, audio clips and hand written diet chart of Jayalalithaa have got released adding to the controversies and this will continue” said advocate Raja Senthur Pandian, counsel for VK Sasikala.

“There will be minor changes during deposition and this is due to typing error or when someone is in a state of panic they don’t actually remember all the minute details.”

Sivakumar could not be reached for comment.