Doctors summoned in Jayalalitha inquest

They had periodically examined the late CM when she was undergoing treatment

The Justice A. Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry, probing the circumstances leading to former Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha’s death, has summoned three doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who examined her at the Apollo Hospital here, to appear before it on August 23 and 24.

The Commission has summoned G.C. Khilnani of the Department of Pulmonology, Anjan Trikha, Professor of Anaesthesiology, and Nitish Nayak, professor at the Department of Cardiology.

Witness

The doctors had periodically examined Jayalalitha when she was undergoing treatment at the Apollo Hospital between September 22 and December 5, 2016.

The expert doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will be examined as the commission’s witnesses on both the days, panel sources told PTI. Summons have already been served on them and they have accepted it, the sources added.

So far the commission’s 75 witnesses and seven others who had voluntarily petitioned the panel have been examined.

Of them, over 30 have been cross-examined by counsels for V.K. Sasikala, the jailed aide of late AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa.

It may be recalled that the examined witnesses include over a dozen doctors (government

The panel’s terms of reference was to inquire into the circumstances leading to the hospitalisation of Jayalalitha on September 22, 2016, and treatment provided by the hospital till her demise.

and Apollo Hospital), retired and serving government officials and police officers.

In September 2017, the Tamil Nadu government constituted the panel under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952.

The panel’s terms of reference was to inquire into the circumstances leading to the hospitalisation of Jayalalitha on September 22, 2016, and treatment provided by the hospital till her demise on December 5, 2016.

Following Jayalalitha’s death, suspicion on the circumstances leading to her demise was raised by several people, including the present Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and his followers.