Retired HC judge Arumugaswamy to probe Jayalalithaa's death

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday said it has set up an inquiry commission headed by retired High Court Justice A. Arumugaswamy to go into the death of late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

Chief Minister K. Palaniswami had announced the government's decision to set up an inquiry commission to be headed by a retired High Court judge to go into the death of the AIADMK supremo.

Ever since Jayalalithaa's death, there have been hints of foul play in her death, with critics pointing fingers at her aide, the now jailed V.K. Sasikala.

The AIADMK camp of Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam had laid down a probe into the death as one of its demands before merging the faction with that led by Palaniswami.

Meanwhile, sidelined AIADMK leader and Sasikala's nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran told reporters that his aunt has taken a video of Jayalalithaa as she was watching television in her hospital room.

Dinakaran said it was only Jayalalithaa who had asked Sasikala to take the video.

According to him, the video could not be released to the media as Jayalalithaa was wearing a nightie after she was shifted from intensive care unit to a room.

The government's decision to set up an inquiry commission comes couple of days after Forests Minister C. Sreenivasan had sought people's apology for "lying" about the health condition of Jayalalithaa when she was admitted in Apollo Hospital.

At a public meeting in Madurai, around 500 km from here, on Friday night, Sreenivasan said: "We would have told lies that she (Jayalalithaa) had idlis and people met her. The truth is that nobody saw her."

PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss in a statement said only a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation could bring out the truth in Jayalalithaa's death and urged the state government to issue orders for that.

According to him, the inquiry commission or the video taken by Sasikala side will not bring out the truth in Jayalalithaa's death.

Ramadoss said there was no visible indication about Jayalalithaa losing weight in Apollo Hospital.

--IANS

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