Panel seeks to question Sasikala in Jaya death

CHENNAI: The one-man panel probing the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo J Jayalalithaa has sought permission to question her confidante VK Sasikala, who is in a Bengaluru jail after being convicted of possessing assets disproportionate to her sources of income.

Justice (retired) A. Arumugasamy, who heads the commission of inquiry into Jayalalithaa’s December 2016 death, has written to the Karnataka prison department, seeking permission to examine Sasikala in person and record her statement. It has also written to Tamil Nadu home secretary,Niranjan Mardi to facilitate this. This is the first time that the panel has made such a request.

Sasikala was lodged in Parapana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru after the Supreme Court in February 2017 upheld her conviction — along with those of Jayalalithaa and two others — in a case of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of incomne. Sasikala was with Jayalalithaa right from her hospitalisation at Chennai’s Apollo Hospitals on September 22, 2016 to her death on December 5, 2016.