The Chennai Police on Wednesday filed a case against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader P Vetrivel for releasing a video clip of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa undergoing treatment at a Chennai hospital before her death in 2016, The New Indian Express reported.
Vetrivel, a supporter of TTV Dinakaran’s AIADMK faction, released the video a day before the bye-election in Jayalalithaa’s constituency RK Nagar. Dinakaran is contesting for the seat, which fell vacant after her death in December 2016.
The police registered the case after the Tamil Nadu Election Commission said releasing the video was against the Model Code of Conduct. Earlier, the poll panel had asked all media houses to refrain from airing video.
The clip has not been verified and its authenticity remains unclear. It shows someone who appears to be Jayalalithaa sipping a drink and watching television in a hospital bed.
There have been contradicting claims about whether party leaders had access to Jayalalithaa when she was in Chennai’s Apollo Hospital in 2016. An inquiry commission, led by Justice A Arumughaswamy, is investigating Jayalalithaa’s death and the circumstances that lead to it.
While releasing the video on Wednesday, Vetrivel said people did meet Jayalalithaa in hospital. “We waited for days before releasing the video but released it now as we were left with no option,” he said.
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