Jayalalithaa’s death: Report under consideration, govt tells HC

CHENNAI: Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission's report is currently under consideration of the State Health and Family Welfare Department, said the State government at the Madras High Court on Monday.

The Arumughaswamy Commission which inquired into the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, tabled its report to the Chief Minister MK Stalin on August 23, 2022.

The commission had indicted Jaya's close aide VK Sasikala, Dr KS Sivakumar, the then Health and Family Welfare department secretary J Radhakrishnan and former minister for Health and Family Welfare department C Vijayabaskar and said that these four have to be found at fault and an investigation should be ordered against them.

Following this, RR Gopaljee, publisher of two editions of a vernacular newspaper had filed the Public Interest Litigation in the Madras High Court seeking Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the former chief minister J Jayalalithaa's death in the light of Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry's report.

The petitioner claims that J Jayalalithaa died under doubtful circumstances after 75 days of hospitalisation. "The death became a subject of public debate with doubts being raised from several quarters. The commission submitted its report in August 2022. No effective action had been taken so far by the state government. No reply over the representations sent to the State and Union government authorities.Therefore the CBI must be ordered to investigate her death in the light of the commission's report," he pointed out in the petition.

When this Public Interest Litigation came up for hearing before acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, Advocate General R Shunmughasundaram informed the court that the Justice A Arumughaswamy's report is currently under the consideration of state Health and Family Welfare Department and the department will take a decision regarding the medical negligence. Subsequently, the bench ordered the State government to file an Action Taken Report (ATR) on March 27 and adjourned the hearing to the same day.