‘Sasikala playing hide & seek with probe panel’

Chennai: V K Sasikala is playing hide and seek game with the Arumughaswamy commission and the only options left were to either visit the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru to record her statement in person or draw its own adverse inference. These are the observations made by Justice (retd) Arumughaswamy commission in an order on Tuesday.
The commission has been appointed by the state government to look into the circumstances surrounding former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s death.

Sasikala is yet to file a sworn affidavit with the commission regarding the details she knew about Jayalalithaa’s death. Her advocate Raja Senthoor Pandian had filed another application on February 6 demanding more documents and expunging the remarks made by the judge in an earlier order on January 30. Her counsel wanted time till February 28 to file the sworn affidavit.

“She has repeatedly filed application after application only for extension of time and she doesn’t like to disclose what has happened in the hospital under the guise of treatment. The commission is of the view that there is no merit in these applications,” the judge said in the order.

Sasikala was the only person who resided with Jayalalithaa even prior to her admission in Apollo Hospital for treatment, the judge said in the order. “Till her demise she was the only person aware of the entire episode and events said to have taken place in Poes Garden till her demise,” he said.

Raja Senthoor Pandian told the media that they have requested one more week for submitting the affidavit and it would be done by March 14.

On Tuesday, Jayalalithaa’s driver Kannan appeared before the commission. Speaking to the media after his deposition, he said he met her five days after she was admitted to the Apollo hospital. He was also driving the car behind the ambulance that carried Jayalalithaa to the hospital on September 22, 2016. “When I saw her in hospital she was fine. I spoke to the doctor,” he said. Kannan has been Jaya’s driver since 1991.

“I have informed the commission everything. I was asked about what kind of questions Jayalalithaa asked when I would be driving her. On the last day when she was on duty, I was the driver,” he said.