The Commission of Inquiry looking into former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's death on Friday saw a brief moment of unity, with lawyers representing the Commission as well as V.K. Sasikala, often at odds with each other, agreeing on an issue.
Multiple sources confirmed that both sets of lawyers argued before Justice A. Arumughaswamy (Retd.) that Thuglak Editor S. Gurumurthy should respond to summons and make a personal appearance before the Commission.
In an application through his lawyer, Mr. Gurumurthy, who has missed two appointments before the Commission, argued that the summons against him was a wasteful exercise and hence should be recalled. Mr. Gurumurthy also argued that the Commission had no material before it to form an opinion on his involvement in matters relating to Jayalalithaa’s health. He said that he was willing to respond in writing if the panel had questions for him.
During the hearing, V.K. Sasikala’s lawyer N. Raja Senthoor Pandian cited a January 7, 2017. public event, recorded on video, where Mr. Gurumurthy argued for about six minutes in favour of appointing a commission to probe Jayalalithaa’s death. The panel was not formed then.
On their part, the Commission's lawyers S. Parthasarathy and Niranjan Rajagopalan argued against providing the material used by the Commission in forming the opinion that Mr. Gurumurthy should appear. They argued that the issuance of the summons meant that the Commission had formed an opinion that Mr. Gurumurthy had to appear. They added that the Commission could not compel Mr. Gurumurthy to answer questions, but he has to appear nevertheless.
The matter will be heard again on July 26 after Mr. Gurumurthy's lawyer asked for time to file a reply.
Deepa’s plea
On Friday, Jayalalithaa’s niece J. Deepa moved the Commission requesting that her lawyer be allowed to participate in the proceedings. She also wants the Commission to allow her lawyer to join the inspection team that is due to visit Apollo Hospitals on July 29. The Commission has asked a team of two of its lawyers, two lawyers of Sasikala's legal team and a photojournalist to inspect the facilities used by Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.
Mrs. Deepa submitted that she and brother Deepak Jayakumar were the only legal heirs of Jayalalithaa. She said that she tried to visit the then-CM at Apollo several times but was not given prevented from meeting Jayalalithaa.
Mrs. Deepa also said that she wanted to submit certain documents before the Commission. After noticing certain errors with the application, Justice Arumughaswamy instructed Mrs. Deepa's lawyer to submit a corrected application at the Commission's registry, after which a decision will be taken on whether the mater will be heard.
On Friday, the Commission examined A. Ramalingam, while Jayalalithaa’s assistants, S. Poongundran and Karthikeyan, were cross-examined by Sasikala's lawyer Mr. Pandian.
Mr. Karthikeyan said Sasikala's relatives — from whom Jayalalithaa had publicly distanced herself and the AIADMK from in 2011 — were present at the December 5, 2016 meeting where it was decided that O. Panneerselvam would be sworn in as CM after Jayalalithaa's death. Mr. Karthikeyan also said that Mr. Panneerselvam did not speak out against Sasikala or her relatives till his February 7, 2017 visit to Jayalalithaa's final resting place on Marina Beach.
Later, Mr. Pandian told journalists that he felt that Jayalalithaa's stature was being lowered by certain questions raised by the Commission’s lawyers. He cited a question to Mr. Poongundran where he was asked about the fear the Poes Garden residence of Jayalalithaa evoked. Mr. Pandian said that during cross-examination, Mr. Poongundran had said that the question had saddened him.