Chennai: Tamilnadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar on Monday told the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry, which was constituted in September 2017, that the government did not discuss about shifting former chief minister late J Jayalalithaa abroad for treatment during the 2016 cabinet meeting.
Speaking to reporters about Vijayabaskar’s deposition, N Raja Senthoor Pandian said that during the cross-examination, the Minister said the topic about taking jayalalithaa’s treatment did not come up at the Cabinet meeting and there was no circumstances to warrant such a discussion at the 19 October 2016 cabinet meeting.
Senthoor Pandian revealed that Vijayabaskar had told the counsel that he had seen Jayalalithaa on 7 October 2016 at Apollo Hospital when she was being taken for the tracheostomy procedure.
When asked whether an Apollo doctor’s statement that Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had seen Jayalalithaa 7 October 2016 was true, Vijayabaskar had replied that the doctor’s deposition would be correct.
It may be noted that in the past, Dindigul C Sreenivasan had said that they had no access to see the former chief minister during her 75-day hospitalisation.
Pandian also revealed that Vijayabaskar’s answers were consistent with that of Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan’s depositions, including that of the foreign treatment.
In December 2018, a counsel for the Commission had alleged that inappropriate treatment was given to Jayalalithaa and that Radhakrishnan had conspired with Apollo Hospital. Also the panel accused that the Radhakrishnan was against taking Jayalalithaa abroad for treatment, which both the hospital and the Health Secretary had strongly refuted.
Vijayabaskar told reporters that he cooperated with the Commission and answered all their questions.