Madras High Court dismissed a petition on Monday asking the court to direct Chennai police to file a complaint regarding former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s ‘suspicious’ death.
The petition was filed by a lawyer named R Krishnamurthy. Justice MS Ramesh dismissed the case stating that an inquiry commission was looking into Jayalalithaa’s death and he should contact the commission to get a remedy and not waste the court’s time.
This comes days after DMK member Saravanan showed the thumb impression of Jayalalithaa in the nomination papers for Thirupparankundram Assembly constituency, and compared it to another person’s thumb impression. He claimed that Jayalalithaa's thumb impression was hazy and said that she might have died much before it was officially announced on December 5, 2016.
Krishnamurthy had earlier filed a petition at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Egmore seeking to prosecute sidelined AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala, her relatives and top officials to unearth the truth behind Jayalalithaa’s death.
On September 25, 2017, the Tamil Nadu government appointed retired High Court Justice A Arumughaswamy to lead the probe into Jayalalithaa’s death. The government order had made it clear that he will have to complete his inquiry and submit a report within three months from the date of publication of the notification in the gazette. The commission 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 order stated.
Justice Arumughaswamy assumed office on October 1 and visited the Kalas Mahal to assess the necessary arrangements to kickstart the probe.
In the course of the year, since Jayalalithaa's death last December, several people have raised suspicions over the nature of her death. Before the merger of the factions led by former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and current Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, the OPS team had claimed multiple times that they had doubts over how the late CM had died. In fact, one of the conditions of the OPS team for the merger was the ordering of an inquiry into her death.
Following the merger, the commission was put in place. But even after that, several people including some ministers have raised doubts over the nature of her death, including some ministers, who pointed fingers at the Sasikala family and claimed they hadn't allowed anyone to meet Jayalalithaa during her hospitalisation.
Forest Minister Dindigul Sreenivasan in fact famously said that they (ministers and AIADMK members) had told lies that Jayalalithaa had idlis and people met her but the truth was that nobody saw her. However, State Co-operatives Minister Sellur Raju had claimed that all the ministers were allowed to meet the late Chief Minister while she was in hospital.