Chennai: Two days after Tamil Nadu’s forest minister Dindigul C Srinivasan admitted he had lied about J Jayalalithaa’s improving health, rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran made fresh claims about proof of the late chief minister’s good treatment in hospital.
Dinakaran said he has videos of Jayalalithaa watching television at Apollo hospital and claimed it was VK Sasikala who had recorded the clips.
“We have the video recordings but we didn't want to degrade her (Jayalalithaa’s) dignity as she was wearing a night dress. My aunt (Sasikala) didn't permit us to use it except for a judicial probe. She had shot a video of Jayalalithaa watching television,” he said, adding that he is ready to hand over the footage to the judge who would probe Jayalalithaa’s death.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Monday announced that retired judge Justice Justice A Arumugasamy would head the commission of inquiry into the death. Jayalalithaa had died of a heart attack on December 5 last year after a prolonged treatment for infection and other complications.
Referring to Srinivasan’s statements, TTV said that people of Tamil Nadu have lost their trust on the two factions. “Just see how they changed their stance before and after Amma's death. Be it Dindigul or Panneerselvam or Jayakumar, they have all made U-turns and are losing the trust now. The same ministers who attacked OPS have now merged with him," he said.
Srinivasan on Friday had said that party leaders had lied about Amma’s death because they were afraid of Sasikala. Whoever came, would be briefed by Sasikala's relatives that she was "all right", he said.
Political observers said that if such a video exists, the state government must ask them to submit it as evidence. “If there is a video, it has to be submitted to the court or the judge. When one has remained silent so far (TTV camp) and then suddenly says there is evidence, the state government should begin the probe," Sumanth Raman said.
RK Radhakrishnan, associate editor of Frontline, said: “It's important for the EPS-OPS camp to firmly paint Sasikala-TTV camp as villains. They are using all ammunition possible. Two potent ways to discredit the Sasikala camp is to create suspicion in the minds of the people over Jayalalithaa’s death, and allege that TTV and DMK were cutting a deal. The EPS-OPS camp is using these two events to achieve what they have to been able to, through more fair means. This is crucial for the sustenance of the current government too, because as many as 21 MLAs are still with TTV.”
Srinivasan had last week said that they were forced to lie about Jayalalithaa’s health. “We told lies that she had idlis and people met her. The truth is that nobody saw her. Even high profile dignitaries including Amit Shah and Rahul Gandhi did not visit Jayalalithaa, but only met the hospital chairman,” he said.
After the death of Jayalalithaa, O Panneerselvam had rebelled against Sasikala and demanded a CBI inquiry into the sudden demise. The Sasikala faction maintained that there was nothing suspicious about the death.
But as the EPS faction and OPS faction began back channel talks, the EPS faction said there will be a judicial probe into Jaya's death. Ministers who met the media during Sept-Dec last year now say no one but Sasikala family had access to the hospital room at Apollo.
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