Chennai: The Tamilnadu government has extended the time given to the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission to probe the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalthaa.
The eighth extension will end on 24 October, 2020. The one-man commission has so far examined at least 145 witnesses, including Ministers, bureaucrats, doctors and members of the V K Sasikala family who were privy to the treatment administered to Jayalalithaa during her 75-day long hospitalisation.
The Commission was set up on 25 September, 2017, by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, after suspicions were raised over the death of Jayalalithaa.
The last extension granted to the one-man Commission ended on 24 June, following which the state government announced further extension of four months on Thursday.
Recently, worried that nearly one-third of its tenure has remained unfruitful due to the Supreme Court stay on its proceedings, the Commission urged Tamilnadu government to get hearing in the apex court expedited.
The Commission wrote to the government to extend its tenure by four months beyond 25 June, 2020, and to extend the tenure of the support staff by four months from 10 July, 2020.