The Justice (retd) Arumughaswamy Commission probing the circumstances leading to the death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has adjourned proceedings to February 11 after the Apollo Hospitals said its medical witnesses will not be available for re-examination on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The hospital expects its writ petition challenging the refusal of the Commission to form a medical board to come up soon for hearing at the Madras High Court.
The Commission is also expected to fix a new date for the deposition of deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.
“The judge said only after the medical witnesses are examined can Mr. Panneerselvam be called, and he also said the State budget would be presented on February 8,” Raja Senthoor Pandian, counsel for V.K. Sasikala, told reporters.
Mr. Pandian said Apollo did not have any objection to examination of any political witnesses but was firm only on its doctors not deposing.
Losing time
“Already Mr. Panneerselvam was supposed to depose on January 9…that was adjourned, then there were reports that it would happen on February 1, then February 5. Now the judge has said he will decide on February 11 on a new date. We will insist that Mr. Panneerselvam appear on February 12 itself. We are losing time,” he added.
Mr. Pandian further said he could call anyone as witness on his side and was not concerned about whether the Commission wanted to call any more witnesses or not.
“We want to question Mr. Panneerselvam, and DMK leader M.K. Stalin…in that case, the former will be witness No.1 and Mr. Stalin will be witness No.2. They are necessary to untie all the remaining knots in this case as they have raised a lot of issues,” he said.
The counsel said more Ministers who had given bytes to the media about Jayalalithaa’s death, Dr. Richard Beale, Mr. Gurumurthy had to be questioned to bring the case to a logical conclusion.