Justice (Retd) A Arumughaswamy of Madras High Court to probe Jayalalithaa's death

TTV Dinakaran was the latest to demand an independent probe into the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's death

The Tamil Nadu government has appointed Justice (Retd) Arumughaswamy to head the inquiry commission that will probe into the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy had, in August, issued orders for a judicial inquiry making way for two warring factions of the AIADMK to merge.

Justice A Arumughaswamy retired from the Madras High Court in 2014. He was later named as chairman of the Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) in Mumbai. Justice Arumughaswamy joined in the Subordinate Judiciary as District Munsif in 1986 and was promoted as Subjudge 1991 and promoted as District Judge in 1998. He was appointed the Registrar General of High Court of Madras in 2009 and elevated as High Court Judge in 2010. He demitted the office as Chairperson Debts Recovery Appellate Tribunal, Mumbai in 2016 after which he took charge as Judicial Member, Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench in Chennai.

O Panneerselvam, after breaking away from the AIADMK had demanded a probe into the death of J Jayalalithaa. After months of dilly-dallying, the Tamil Nadu government ordered a probe but the intent was, however, to make the path easier for Edappadi Palanisamy and Panneerselvam camps of the AIADMK to merge.

Several activists in Tamil Nadu had sought a probe into Jayalalithaa's death. Speculations were raised over her health condition and time of death from day one. On Friday, Sreenivasan, the forest minister of Tamil Nadu, raised a storm after 'admitting to lying' about Jayalalithaa's health condition. He told a meeting of party workers that none had met Jayalalithaa when she was under treatment in Apollo hospital. He apologized to the people for lying about how Jayalalithaa had recovered and was consuming food.

TTV Dinakaran on Monday, in a bid to rubbish Sreenivasan's claims, said that Sasikala Natarajan had recorded videos of Jayalalithaa in the hospital. He assured that the same would be handed over to the inquiry commission. Justice (Retd) Arumughaswamy will now head the probe into Jayalalithaa's death as well as the speculation around it.

OneIndia News