Jayalalithaa's death commission summons 10 doctors from Apollo Hospitals

The Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission, which is inquiring into the circumstances that led to the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, on Wednesday summoned 10 doctors from Apollo Hospitals who were part of the panel that treated her.

This is the first time that the commission has issued summons after it resumed hearing in the case last month. The commission remained idle for two years after Apollo Hospitals, where Jayalalithaa was admitted for 75 days before she breathed her last due to a cardiac arrest on December 5, 2016, approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the hearing.

The hearing resumed last month after the court asked AIIMS to constitute a medical advisory board to assist the commission and provide expert opinion. Sources said the Arumughaswamy Commission has issued summons to 10 doctors from Apollo who formed part of the team that provided treatment to her. They will have to appear on March 7 and 8.

Jayalalithaa was wheeled into the Apollo Hospitals on the night of September 22, 2016, and she died on December 5 after a 75-day stay. The commission has so far examined 100 witnesses, including Jayalalithaa’s official and personal staff, and Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan.

V K Sasikala, Jayalalithaa’s long-time friend, had submitted a voluminous response, narrating her side of the story and how her conviction by a Bengaluru court in 2014 triggered a host of health issues for the former chief minister. The commission recently got its 12th extension – this time for five months – till June 24, the second after the DMK came to power.

The commission will turn five this September and so far Rs 3 crore has been spent on its functioning, though no headway has been made.

The commission was constituted purely for political reasons. Setting up a panel to probe the “mysterious death” of Jayalalithaa was one of the conditions set by the then rebel O Panneerselvam for merging his faction with that of Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Though it was OPS who demanded the constitution of a commission, the former deputy chief minister never appeared before the panel despite several summons. He had alleged that Jayalalithaa was hospitalised on September 22, 2016, under mysterious circumstances.

Jayalalithaa’s death is one of the most politicised issues in Tamil Nadu in the past few years with the DMK also demanding a “fair probe” into the AIADMK leader’s demise. The DMK also raked up Jayalalithaa’s death in the run-up to the polls and at one time, the party also demanded a CBI probe.

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