Saturday, January 5, 2019

Jaya death probe panel quizzed on charges against health secy

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  05.01.2019

Raja Senthoor Pandian, counsel for V K Sasikala, on Friday questioned the Justice (retd) A Arumughaswamy commission why questions regarding former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s need for an angiogram were posed to health secretary J Radhakrishnan IAS and not to the All India Instituteof Medical Sciences(AIIMS) cardiothoracic expert V Devagourou.

When Radhakrishnan was cross-examined on Friday, Pandian saidRadhakrishnan was asked on December 20 abo-

JAY ut Jayalalithaa needing an angiogram and airlifting her to a foreign country for treatment. On December 27, the commission’s counsel, Mohammed Jafarullah Khan, filed a petition alleging Radhakrishnan of collusion and conspiracy with ApolloHospitals and alludedto medical negligence in Jayalalithaa’s treatment. “On December 19, Devagourou appeared before the commission. Why wasn’t the same question posed to him? Is the commission trying to allege a conspiracy by theCentral governmentin Jayalalithaa’s treatment?” Pandian said during the proceedings.Helater confirmeditin a press briefing.

Radhakrishnan based his entire deposition on Friday on reports given by AIIMS, who said the treatment given was satisfactory. He also categorically denied allegations made by Khan in his petition including thatof being Apollo’sspokesperson. Sources said at one point he broke down after whichthejudgeexcused him for a few minutes.

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Khan had alleged that Radhakrishnan had not filed any report with any cabinet minister regarding Jayalalithaa’s treatment.Pandian quotedchief secretary Girija Vaidyanathan’s letters to the commission on October 29 and 30,whereshe said Radhakrishnan and her predecessor Rama Mohan Rao had briefed ministers and top officials about Jayalalithaa’s health on a daily basis during her hospitalisation, and there was no needfor them tofile a separate report.

During the hearing, sources said the commission quoted from former chief secretary Rama Mohan Rao’s deposition where he expressed shock on Apollo “washing its hands off ” the medical bulletins issued during Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation (Apollo has held that the government had vetted the bulletins issued on the hospital letterhead). The commission asked Radhakrishnan why Apollo didn’t move a petition earlier, but was trying to ‘protect’ him, alleging that he was its spokesperson. At this juncture, Apollo counsel Maimoona Badsha objected, saying that another person’s deposition was being thrust on Radhakrishnan, sources said.

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