The Commission of Inquiry looking into the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa intends to examine V.K. Sasikala.
A source said the Justice (Retd.) A. Arumughaswamy Commission is weighing two options — either to travel to the Bangalore Central Prison or bring her out on parole. The Commission is aware that the latter will mean a significant cost to the state exchequer in terms of security and logistics.
The decision to examine Sasikala is being considered as the Commission, starting Monday, will examine what it considers the last batch of senior doctors who treated Jayalalithaa.
Apart from eight doctors — all consultants at Apollo Hospitals — the Commission has to examine London-based intensivist Richard Beale and at least one Singapore-based physiotherapist. The Commission is in touch with Dr. Beale. It intends to examine them over the video-conferencing facilities of the National Green Tribunal, located in the Kalas Mahal building, where its offices are located.
The Commission is yet to examine three doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and will summon two others, who have deposed already.
After examining the doctors, the Commission intends to issue summons to a number of senior politicians and bureaucrats.
The source said that Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambi Durai will be summoned; so will Ministers C. Vijayabaskar, S.P. Velumani, P. Thangamani and K.C. Veeramani. Health secretary J. Radhakrishnan be examined.
Sasikala’s lawyer N. Raja Senthoor Pandian will be allowed to submit a list of witnesses his client wants examined. A source said there could even be “10-15 names” on that list, mainly of those who spoke in public of Jayalalithaa's death. Among others, Sasikala's legal team intends to recommend the examination of minister Dindigul C. Sreenivasan, who recently alleged that the Chief Minister had been administered "slow poison."
A source said that the Commission does not intend to request an extension beyond February 24, 2019. This newspaper had reported that the Commission had attempted to submit its report by October 24, but was unsuccessful.
Justice Arumughaswamy has begun the preparatory work for the drafting of his report: he has asked his two lawyers to make available the testimonies of all 118 witnesses and eight petitions in English and Tamil. While S. Parthasarathy will translate from Tamil to English, R. Niranjan will do vice-versa. The final report of the Commission will be prepared in both languages.