TN report on Jaya death ‘finds fault’ with Sasikala
CHENNAI: The Justice A Arumugasamy Commission report tabled in the Tamil Nadu assembly on Tuesday appeared to blame the death of former chief minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa on her companion and confidant VK Sasikala; found fault with the line of treatment of the late CM; and raised questions about the time of death.
The report has recommended action against the Intensive Care Unit doctor at Apollo Hospitals where Jayalalithaa was being treated, Dr Babu Abraham, and an investigation against chairman of the hospital Prathap Reddy. It has also recommended an investigation against Sasikala, the state’s former health minister C Vijayabaskar, former health secretary J Radhakrishnan, and the chief minister’s personal physician, Dr KS Sivakumar, a relative of Sasikala, saying, they “have to be found fault with and investigation is to be ordered.” “The Commission…is constrained to come to no other conclusion, but to indict R.1 (Sasikala),” the report said.
To be sure, the basis on which the commission arrived at this conclusion is not clear. The report relies on an article in a magazine, Tehelka, to establish the fracture in the relationship between Jayalalithaa and Sasikala. And it refutes a report submitted by a panel of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) set up by the Supreme Court to assess the line of treatment of the former Tamil Nadu CM that found nothing wrong with it. The time of Jayalalithaa’s death assumes significance and it has far-reaching consequences, the commission said. The time of her death has been recorded as December 5, 2016 at 11:30pm but the commission is of the view that she died a day earlier on December 4 before 3.50pm.
“There is gross variation with
the version of the paramedical personnel who physically attended to the late CM when she was sinking in her hospital bed. The unequivocal and unambiguous version of the nurses, technicians, and duty doctors, who were monitoring the health status of late CM, is that she suffered a cardiac failure before 3:50pm on 4.12.2016 and that there was no electric activity in the heart, and there was also no blood circulation.” So the Commission said that the CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and sternotomy exercises were futile and these have been used as a ploy to explain the delay in the official declaration of her death. The Commission left it to the decision of the government whether or not to investigate Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals.
HT reached out to Apollo Hospital’s public relations and legal teams for a response but did not get one immediately.
Jayalalithaa’s 75-day hospitalisation and death has created a legal and political controversy.
In April 2019, the Madras high court had rejected a plea of the hospital seeking a stay on the proceedings of the Arumugasamy Commission until a medical board is formed, alleging its functioning
was biased. The hospital later moved the Supreme Court which subsequently ordered a stay in the Commission’s proceedings.
Last year, the top court agreed to constitute a medical board of AIIMS doctors to assist the Arumugasamy Commission.
Simultaneously, the TN government (then an AIADMK one) created the panel on September 26, 2017 to probe the circumstances leading to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa on September 22, 2016 and her eventual death on December 5, 2016. The creation of the Commission was part of an arrangement between Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS), rivals in the party who came together after Jayalalithaa’s death. OPS was convinced there was more to her death than met the eye. The two have since broken up again.
The Arumugasamy Commission got several extensions under the previous AIADMK regime. The DMK promised in its election manifesto ahead of the 2021 assembly elections “to bring the truth out” surrounding Jayalalithaa’s death. The Commission submitted its report to the ruling DMK government on August 27.
Earlier in August, the AIIMS
medical board said in its report that “the treatment of the former CM was as per correct medical practice and no errors have been found in the care provided.” The Commission did not accept the AIIMS medical report and said it “only copied the treatment summary and given opinion.”
Sasikala termed the Commission’s opinion ‘false’ and ‘ridiculous’. In a three-page statement, she said: “In what way is it fair for the inquiry commission to overstep its jurisdiction and blame me?” she asked. “I never interfered in the medical treatment and I have not studied medicine to make comments as the Commission has said. Apollo is not some ordinary hospital to listen to my medical advice.” EPS said it was his government which constituted the Commission. “Who formed the Commission? We did,” he said. Vijayabhaskar, against whom the report recommended action, said: “I will read the report fully and respond accordingly.”
DMK spokesperson A Saravanan said: “Our leader (CM MK Stalin), who was then the opposition leader, sought for a White Paper on the issue. We still don’t have answers on why Jayalalithaa’s condition deteriorated.”