Commission’s recommendation brings Jayalalithaa's death back into focus

Almost six years after J Jayalalithaa passed away following a 75-day hospitalisation in 2016, the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission has brought her death, the most politicised issue in Tamil Nadu in the recent past, into focus yet again by recommending an “inquiry” against V K Sasikala and three others.

A voluminous report submitted by Arumughaswamy, who was tasked to probe the circumstances that led to the hospitalisation and subsequent death of Jayalalithaa, was discussed at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday. While the report is yet to be made public as it has to be tabled on the floor of the Assembly, the government said it was consulting legal experts on the Commission’s recommendation to initiate an inquiry against Sasikala, then Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, then Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao, and Jayalalithaa’s physician Dr Sivakumar.

It is not immediately clear on what count the Commission wants an inquiry against the aforesaid four, but there is intense speculation on the future course of action by the DMK government on this issue. A “fair” inquiry on Jayalalithaa’s death was one of DMK’s promises during the 2021 assembly polls with Stalin himself casting doubts on her hospitalisation and the events that followed.

The inquiry commission itself was constituted as part of a compromise formula between the then two warring factions led by Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, who raised doubts over Jayalalithaa’s death and pointed a finger at Sasikala and her family.

However, Panneerselvam had in March this year made a U-turn saying he merely reflected people’s sentiments over Jayalalithaa’s death and he never raised any doubts over Sasikala.

A medical board consisting of doctors from the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had a fortnight back concluded that the treatment provided to Jayalalithaa was “as per correct medical practice” and no errors have been found in the care provided to her.

Though Jayalalithaa’s 75-day hospitalisation was shrouded in mystery with little information put out on her health in the public domain, the Apollo Hospital where she was wheeled into on September 22, 2016, has been maintaining that it did provide “proper and required” treatment to the late CM. It also said the treatment protocol was jointly decided by Dr Richard Beale, a specialist from the UK, a team of doctors from AIIMS, and doctors of the Apollo Hospital.

The access to the second floor of the hospital where Jayalalithaa was receiving treatment was “out of bounds” for people except those authorised by the hospital and CCTV cameras were also switched off on a request from the government. It was an open secret that only Sasikala decided who should get access to the second floor – many AIADMK leaders, including Panneerselvam, said they weren’t allowed to meet Jayalalithaa.

If the treatment provided was as per medical practice and with Arumughaswamy himself ruling out any “foul play” in the way Jayalalithaa was wheeled into the hospital from her Poes Garden residence, political analysts said, seeking to know on what basis the Commission has sought an inquiry against four persons.

They sought to know whether the Commission was providing much fodder to the discussion around Jayalalithaa’s death. “The Commission’s report, whatever has been made public, will help the DMK. It will give the DMK a chance to say that it has been vindicated. And the advantage for the ruling party is that the AIADMK cannot oppose the report as it was the party-led government that constituted the Commission,” a political analyst said.

However, senior journalist R Bhagwan Singh said it was unfair to blame the DMK for playing politics with the report.

“Justice Arumughaswamy himself had the powers to summon Sasikala and investigate her. He didn’t do it. But he has recommended that the government initiate an inquiry against her. If the DMK had to do politics over Jayalalithaa’s death, it could have done so in several ways after coming to power. But it chose to wait for the Commission’s report,” he told DH.

The Commission examined as many as 154 witnesses, including Jayalalithaa’s official and personal staff and Panneerselvam. 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.

Jayalalithaa’s death is one of the most politicised issues in Tamil Nadu in the past few years with 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.