Over a year after former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was hospitalised, retired Madras High Court Judge Justice A Arumughaswamy who is heading an inquiry commission into her death, assumed office. He along with senior officials visited the Kalas Mahal to assess the necessary arrangements to kickstart the probe, reports ToI.

A government order on September 25 made it clear the commission will have to complete its inquiry and submit a report within three months from the date of publication of the notification in the gazette. It will have to 'inquire into the circumstances and situation leading to the hospitalisation of the late chief minister on September 22, 2016 and subsequent treatment provided till her unfortunate demise on December 5, 2016.'

“The judge was there for close to 15 minutes, checking the infrastructure of the building. Once the government issues an order, we will start making the arrangements for the commission,“ said a PWD official to ToI.

The Edappadi Palaniswami government announced that there will be an independent inquiry into the demise of Jayalalithaa, ahead of its merger with the OPS faction, which laid down a probe as one of its conditions to join the government. In addition to this, further doubts have been raised following contrasting statements by minister over whether they were allowed to meet the late CM when she was hospitalised. 

Minister Dindugal Sreenivasan said last week that, "We would have told lies that she (Jayalalithaa) had idlis and people met her. The truth is that nobody saw her."

Sreenivasan further claimed he was seeking apology from the people now for "those lies".

According to him, everyone in the government and in the ruling AIADMK party "lied about the people" who had met Jayalalithaa in Apollo Hospital, where she was admitted on September 22 last year. He said that no one except Sasikala had been allowed to see her in the hospital.