'Never interfered with treatment'; Sasikala refutes accusation against her

Chennai: V K Sasikala, an expelled AIADMK leader and close ally of the late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, stated on Tuesday that she is prepared to cooperate with any investigation and refuted the accusations made against her in the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry report.

The committee that looked into Jayalalithaa's death has indicted her close aide V K Sasikala as well as three other people, including Dr K S Sivakumar, Jayalalithaa's personal physician, as well as former state health minister C Vijayabaskar and then-health secretary J Radhakrishnan. The report was presented to the Assembly on Tuesday by the Tamil Nadu administration, Indian Express reported.

Sasikala claimed in a three-page statement that individuals would no longer back the stance of those who lacked the courage to challenge Jayalalithaa politically and were instead observing the politicisation of her passing. People now understand there was no controversy around her passing, she continued.

Sasikala further asserted that the panel had overstepped its bounds and questioned the necessity of making baseless accusations against her based on those presumptions. "The Commission in its findings has noted that since 2012, Amma and I were not on good terms. How did they arrive at such a conclusion? Who informed them? The late Puratchithalaivi would not have told them. Then what is the ulterior motive behind making such a false, absurd remark? I leave it to the public to understand to whose political benefit these allegations have been made," she said.

Sasikala made a comment in response to the commission's finding regarding the medical care Jayalalithaa received and said, "I never interfered with the medical treatment given to Puratchithalaivi Amma. I did not study medicine to provide my views on the matter. The medical team decided on what kind of medicines and procedures should be administered [to Jayalalithaa]. My only intention was to provide first-class treatment to Akka [Jayalalithaa]."

It was decided to transport Jayalalithaa to that hospital since they had previously performed tests on her and the staff there was aware of her illness, she noted, adding that Apollo Hospital is not an average hospital which will carry out treatment depending on her instructions.

Sasikala stated that she was never opposed to sending the late AIADMK leader abroad for treatment. "We took her there [Apollo] as it is one of largest hospitals in Asia and doctors who had received world-class recognition were working there. It was the decision of the doctors including those from AIIMS that Amma did not require an angiogram during that period. People will not accept the observations of the Commission that were made out of assumptions. I refute all the allegations made against me. I am ready to face any probe," she said.

The Arumughsamy Commission was established to conduct an investigation of the events and circumstances leading up to Jayalalithaa's hospitalisation on September 22, 2016, and the ongoing care given to her till her passing on December 5, 2016.

In its election manifesto prior to the 2021 Assembly election, the DMK stated that if elected, they will investigate Jayalalithaa's death and take the necessary legal measures against the perpetrators.