Tamil Nadu govt appoints retired judge to probe Jayalalithaa's death

Tamil Nadu government appointed retired Justice Arumugasamy to inquire into death of former chief minister and AIADMK head J Jayalalithaa.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami had announced an inquiry commission to be headed by a retired High Court judge to go into the death of Jayalalithaa as there have been several conflicting reports on the circumstances surrounding her death.

Recently, Tamil Nadu's Minister for Forests C Sreenivasan sought people's apology for lying about the well being of late Jayalalithaa's health condition when she was admitted at Apollo Hospital.

"We would have told lies that she (Jayalalithaa) had idlis and people met her. The truth is that nobody saw her," he said.

"We all lied then so that the party's secret does not get leaked," Sreenivasan said. He said nobody met Jayalalithaa in her hospital room.

On the night of September 22, 2016 Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital. She died in the hospital on December 5, 2016.

"During her period of stay the information from the government and the hospital about her health condition were in scarce.

Majority of the communication about her health condition stated that she was on the road to recovery and she was doing well.

Sreenivasan said nobody had seen Jayalalithaa in her hospital room and even high profile visitors used to sit in Apollo Hospital Chief Pratap Reddy's room.

He said only V K Sasikala— a close aide of Jayalalithaa for several years— who used to meet Jayalalithaa.