The daughters of V.K. Sasikala’s brother Dhivakaran on Thursday contradicted the statement of Dr. K.S. Sivakumar — a member of her family — before the commission of inquiry looking into former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s death.
A source familiar with her testimony said that Dr. Rajamathangi, a physician at Apollo Hospitals, told Justice (retd.) A. Arumughaswamy that she had not taken notes on Jayalalithaa’s treatment daily. While being examined by the Commission’s lawyers S. Parthasarathy and R. Niranjan, she said that Dr. Sivakumar's statement before the Commission to that effect was wrong.
Dr. Sivakumar, who is Sasikala’s brother’s son-in-law, coordinated Jayalalithaa’s treatment. He had contradicted parts of Sasikala’s version of events leading up to Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation.
Dr. Rajamathangi reportedly said that she had not interacted with doctors treating Jayalalithaa or kept track of her treatment. In fact, she met Jayalalithaa at the Apollo Hospitals only once: on September 28, 2016, when Sasikala summoned her to the then-CM’s room and introduced her.
Dr. Rajamathangi said that Sasikala used to clarify her doubts with her; she also knew of the details of the tracheostomy performed on Jayalalithaa because her husband and ENT specialist P.S.J. Vikram was part of the team that performed the procedure.
Dr. Vikram, who practices at Apollo, was also examined on Thursday.
The Commission also examined S. George, former Commissioner of Police, Chennai. On Thursday, the Commission was approached by Sasikala’s lawyer N. Raja Senthoor Pandian, who wanted a postponement of the matters scheduled for Saturday as he was busy with the Madras High Court’s judgment regarding the disqualification of 18 MLAs.
Apollo visit
On Thursday, the Arumughaswamy Commission also passed an order allowing its lawyers and Sasikala’s lawyers to visit the Apollo Hospitals on Greames Road and examine the facilities used by Jayalalithaa during her stay. However, the Commission later recalled the order and kept it in abeyance after the hospital objected, stating that it wanted to be heard on the matter. Justice Arumughaswamy was not scheduled to travel with the lawyers to the hospital.
The team was to visit the hospital at 10.30 a.m. on Friday. A source familiar with the circumstances of the order said that the team’s primary objective was to test proximity: members of the team wanted to verify whether various witnesses who reportedly saw Jayalalithaa at the hospital could spot her from where they stood. They also wanted to visit Sasikala’s living quarters on the third floor of the hospital.