Sasikala's kin claims Apollo Hospital hid Jayalalithaa's death for a day: Reports

NEW DELHI: In a major twist to the suspicions surrounding the death of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, a relative of jailed AIADMK leader on Wednesday claimed that Jayalalithaa died on December 4, 2016 and not on December 5, as officially announced by Apollo Hospitals.

Participating at the AIADMK founder and former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran (MGR) birth centenary celebrations in Tiruvarur district, V Divakaran said "Jayalalithaa died at 5.15 p.m. on Dec 4, 2016 and not the next day late night and the official declaration was delayed by a day so as to provide adequate security to the chain of Apollo Hospitals across the state." His statement comes at a time when a Commission of Inquiry is probing into the circumstances that led to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa.

"Announcement of Jayalalithaa's death was postponed by a day for law and order reasons," Dhivakaran said.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital in September 2016 for dehydration. Later her condition got complicated. On December 5, 2016, rumours were floating about Jayalalithaa's death in the evening which Apollo Hospital denied but later it was announced that she died at around 11.30 pm on that day. She was in the hospital for 75 days before she breathed her last.

Recently on January 12, the Apollo Hospital, where former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa was treated, submitted documents pertaining to her treatment to an inquiry commission set up by the state government to investigate the matter. According to ANI, the top management of the Apollo Hospital handed over the treatment record of Jayalalithaa, packed in two suitcases, to the one-member commission, formed by the Tamil Nadu government.

The commission had also ordered jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala's advocate Raja Senthurapandian to appear before it on January 22. On January 6, Sasikala had sought the copies of testimonies given by various witnesses against her in connection with Jayalalithaa's death. Sasikala, who has been jailed in a multi-crore disproportionate assets case, had filed an affidavit through her lawyer Raja Senthurapandian in this regard.

Earlier on December 22, the commission had summoned Sasikala and Apollo Hospital founder-Chairman Pratap Reddy in this matter. Following Jayalalithaa's death in December 2016, allegations of foul play began to do the rounds and state forest minister Dindigul Sreenivasan later claimed that all cabinet ministers had lied to the people about hospitalisation and death of the former Tamil Nadu CM.

Subsequently, a one-man commission was constituted and a probe under a retired Madras High Court judge, Justice Arumugasamy, was initiated on October 30. The commission, whose constitution was challenged in the Supreme Court through a plea, which the apex court later rejected, is likely to submit its findings in the first quarter of this year.