A month after the announcement of a judicial probe into the death of AIADMK supremo and former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, the Edappadi K. Palanisamy-led government on Monday appointed an enquiry commission headed by retired high court judge A. Arumughaswamy.
The commission was set up a day after state forest minister Dindigul C. Sreenivasan publicly admitted that they all had lied about Jayalalithaa’s health and that they had not met her even once during her stay at the Apollo hospital in Chennai.
Palaniswami, on August 17, had announced that a single member judicial commission would be appointed to probe the death of Jayalalithaa and her hospitalisation. The chief minister's announcement had brought to an end AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam’s “Dharma Yudham” for a probe into Jayalalithaa's death, and paved way for the merger of two warring factions of the party, and eventually the expulsion of party general secretary V.K. Sasikala.
A statement from the government said, “A government order appointing Justice Arumughaswamy to head the inquiry commission to probe into former chief minister Jayalalithaa’s death has been issued.”
Justice Arumughaswamy retired from the Madras High Court in 2014, and was also part of the Central Administrative Tribunal. A man who rose from the ranks of the subordinate judiciary to the high court to serve as a judge, hails from West Tamil Nadu.
Justice Arumughaswamy was appointed the district munsif in 1986 and then elevated as a sub-judge in 1991. He became a district judge in 1998 and then went on to become the registrar-general of the Madras High Court. He became a high court judge in 2009. After retirement, he was named the chairman of the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal in Mumbai.
A probe into Jayalalithaa’s death was announced after demands from various quarters who had aired suspicion over the health of the late party leader and the treatment she was given. Besides Panneerselvam, the opposition DMK, too, have been demanding a CBI probe.
Sasikala’s family, however, has been maintaining that they have the video clips of Jayalalithaa in the hospital and will be released whenever required. Speaking to the media on Monday AIADMK’s sidelined leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran said, “We have the video. We did not release because Amma was wearing a night gown, and was looking pale and fragile.”
The government has not stated the period of the commission, the date of submission of its report, specification of inquiry and the agenda of the commission. In fact Tamil Nadu has seen 23 one man commissions which did not bring any progress in the issues concerned.
