IRS officer moves HC for probe into Jayalalithaa's death

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on July 4

An IRS officer on Monday moved the Madras High Court seeking the formation of a panel headed by IAS officer U Sagayam to probe into the circumstances leading to the death of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

The petition filed by Assistant Commissioner (Customs) Balamurugan of the Central Excise and Service Tax Tribunal (CESTAT) came up for before the bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar.

The bench tagged the officer's plea with similar other petitions and posted the matter for further hearing on July 4.

The petitioner submitted that Tamil Nadu Governor C H Vidyasagar Rao had visited Jayalalithaa at Apollo Hospital in Chennai only 10 days after her admission, that too after the opposition parties raked up the issue of her hospitalisation.

While Jayalalithaa was admitted on September 22 last year, Rao had visited the hospital only on October 2 and returned without actually meeting her, he submitted.

He had handed over a fruit basket to someone else and returned, only to issue a press statement that she was recovering well, he alleged.

The petitioner raised some more queries, including as to why Apollo hospital did not allow Jayalalithaa's niece Deepa Jayakumar to see her, why Jayalalithaa was not discharged after being cured of fever and why the hospital did not allow the former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo to go abroad for further treatment.

When the matter came up, Government Pleader M K Subramanian argued that the charges were baseless.

IAS officer Sagayam had earlier been appointed as Legal Commissioner by the high court to look into charges of illegal mining in Madurai district on a plea by 'Traffic' Ramaswamy.