Jayalalithaa commission completes probe; to start work on report

After examining 159 witnesses, including O Panneerselvam over four-and-a-half years, the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission on Tuesday completed its probe into the circumstances that led to the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

The one-man commission, whose tenure ends on June 24, has decided to work on the report to be submitted to the state government. “The Commission’s probe is over. The work now is to write the report. The report writing will start from Wednesday,” a source in the commission told DH.

Over the course of 4.5 years, the Commission examined as many as 159 persons, including bureaucrats who worked under Jayalalithaa, doctors who treated her, and some of her personal staff. While V K Sasikala, long-time friend of Jayalalithaa, submitted a voluminous response, O Panneerselvam, who was exercising the Chief Minister’s responsibilities during her hospitalization, appeared before the Commission last month and recorded his statement.

Panneerselvam deposed that neither Sasikala nor her family members plotted against the former multi-term Chief Minister and that he “personally” had no suspicion over Jayalalithaa’s death – a volte-face from his earlier stand.

Panneerselvam had contradicted himself by his latest comments that “personally” he had no suspicion over Jayalalithaa’s death – at the height of his rebellion against Sasikala in 2017, he had suggested that there was a conspiracy in the demise of his leader, and he was the first one to seek a probe.

The Commission has so far spent over Rs 3 crore on its functioning and was constituted only at OPS’ insistence. In fact, the formation of the Commission was a pre-requisite for Panneerselvam to merge his faction with that of Edappadi K Palaniswami in 2017.

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.

In her response, Sasikala narrated 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.

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