The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday granted an extension of four months to the commission investigating the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. The one-man commission is expected to submit its report on February 24, reported The News Minute.
This is the third such extension granted to the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission since it was set up in August last year after Jayalithaa died of a cardiac arrest on December 5, 2016. She had been admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Chennai on September 22, 2016. The commission has been mandated to inquire into the circumstances leading to her hospitalisation and the treatment provided to her till her death.
The commission was initially given three months to complete its probe, which was extended to six months in December 2017. Earlier in June, the commission sought and was granted another four months to submit its report due on October 24.
Earlier this month, the Apollo Hospital told the commission that CCTV cameras in its corridors were switched off during Jayalalithaa’s movements inside the premises on the instructions of the police. It also informed the panel that CCTV footage of her stay has been overwritten.
Chief Minister Edapaddi Palaniswami announced the creation of the commission on September 25, a day after Tamil Nadu Forests Minister C Sreenivasan publicly admitted that All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders had lied about Jayalalithaa’s stay in the hospital.
A number of bureaucrats, aides and household staff from Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence as well as several doctors have testified before the committee so far.
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