Jayalalithaa's hospital bill at Apollo: 6.85 cr

Apollo Hospital has billed Rs 6.85 crore for the treatment and other costs involved during the hospitalisation of J Jayalalithaa for 75 days in 2016, the Commission probing the former Chief Minister’s death was told on Tuesday.

Out of the 6.85 crores, Rs 44 lakh is yet to be paid to the hospital by the AIADMK, which had announced that it would incur the bills and not the Tamil Nadu government. The details about the bill amount and expenses incurred on Jayalalithaa’s treatment was shared by Apollo Hospital in an affidavit filed by it before the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission.

A close look at the bill, a copy of which was accessed by DH, shows more than Rs 1 crore was spent on food and beverages, Rs 24 lakh on rent for the rooms occupied and Rs 1.9 crore for health care services. The entire second floor of the hospital was evacuated for Jayalalithaa’s stay and her close aide V K Sasikala, currently serving her four-year term in Parapana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru, stayed in a suite in the hospital.

As the bill went viral on social media leading to questions being raised on the food bills, sources clarified that it was the entire amount incurred on food provided not just for Jayalalithaa but for her caretakers, security personnel, ministers, bureaucrats and party leaders who camped at the hospital.

AIADMK sources said they were not aware of the pending payment of Rs 44 lakh but said they will seek more details from Apollo Hospital on it.

Out of the 6.85 crores, Rs 44 lakh is yet to be paid to the hospital by the AIADMK.

The former Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary was rushed to Apollo Hospitals’ Greams Road facility in Chennai on September 22 after she fainted at her Poes Garden residence. However, she passed away on December 5 following cardiac arrest she suffered the previous day.

Jayalalithaa’s death and her Apollo stay have been a matter of debate in Tamil Nadu politics for the past two years. The Commission, which was constituted in August 2017 to “dispel doubts” about Jayalalithaa’s death, has so far examined more than 140 witnesses, mostly bureaucrats, doctors, hospital officials and her security guards, and is likely to submit its report in the first quarter of 2019.