Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa alleged on Wednesday before an enquiry commission that her aunt may have been ‘attacked’, as per a report in The Times of India.
She was deposing before a one-man panel which is probing the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's death in December 2016.
"I told the panel that there is no chance of her (Jayalalithaa) to get indisposed and hospitalised (after attending work till 9 pm). She may have been attacked," Deepa told reporters.
Deepa, who was inside the commission's office in Kalas Mahal for more than three hours, urged the panel to question VK Sasikala and her family.
On September 22, 2016, Jayalalithaa was in good health and attended government work till 9 pm that day, Deepa said.
In her deposition, she said that all employees of the former chief minister’s residence at Poes Garden, including her long time cook Rajamma, should be interrogated.
"I submitted details on the circumstances under which my aunt was admitted to the hospital. All the family members of Sasikala should be questioned,” she said.
Deepa said that one of Jayalalithaa’s long time neighbours informed her that six persons not linked to the household were made to say in the Poes Garden residence as per a report in DNA.
While stating that this neighbour wanted his identity protected, Deepa told the panel to investigate this further.
In September 2017, the Tamil Nadu government constituted the Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry to look into the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's death and the panel commenced its hearing on November 22.
Several people, including Madurai-based DMK functionary P Saravanan have deposed before it so far, the DNA report adds.
The Commission has invited everybody with "personal knowledge and direct acquaintance" in the matter to present information to it.
Jayalalithaa died in Chennai on December 5 last year after being admitted to the Apollo hospital on the night of September 22, 2016.