The principal secretary to the then Governor of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday told the commission of inquiry looking into the death of Jayalalithaa that his only source of information about the former Chief Minister’s health between October 23 and December 3, 2016 was government doctor P. Balaji.
A source said that Ramesh Chand Meena, an IAS officer who is currently Chairman and Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, told Justice (Retd.) A. Arumughaswamy that he called up Dr. Balaji each time former Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao made enquiries about the then CM’s health.
Dr. Balaji, the then head of the Minimal Access Surgery Department of the Madras Medical College, had been appointed as the liaison between the government of Tamil Nadu and the various doctors who were consulted on the CM’s health.
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Raj Bhavan neither called for any documents nor contacted any other individual on Jayalalithaa’s health after the Governor’s second visit to Apollo Hospitals, on October 22, 2016.
Mr. Meena, who was examined for five hours by the Commission’s lawyers S. Parthasarathy and R. Niranjan, said that Dr. Balaji had assured him that Jayalalithaa was healthy.
Mr. Meena also told the Commission that he did not accompany the Governor and Apollo Hospitals Chairman Prathap C. Reddy into the duty doctors’ room at the hospital’s ICU on both October 1 and October 22, 2016. On both occasions, Governor Rao and Dr. Reddy did not enter the former CM’s room and viewed her from beyond a glass pane separating the two rooms.
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The first time, the Governor and Dr. Reddy emerged out of the room in 1-2 minutes; they took about three minutes on October 22. K.S. Sivakumar, a relative of V.K. Sasikala who had been coordinating Jayalalithaa’s treatment pre-hospitalisation, also accompanied them on both occasions.
Mr. Meena, therefore, was not present when Governor Rao saw Jayalalithaa. He told the Commission that the Governor later recounted the meetings to him en route to the Raj Bhavan.
Thumbs-up sign
Mr. Meena said that the Governor had told him that Jayalalithaa was unconscious and surrounded by tubes on October 1. On October 22, the Governor told Mr. Meena that Jayalalithaa, who was undergoing physiotherapy, had displayed a thumbs-up sign on seeing him.
Later, Sasikala’s lawyer Rajkumar Pandian told reporters that Mr. Meena also told the Commission that on October 22, the Governor had remarked — in the car, en route to Raj Bhavan — that he was happy about Jayalalithaa’s improved health condition.
Specialist’s report
On October 1, the Governor was shown a report prepared by London-based specialist Richard Beale. The report, among other things, reportedly described the then CM’s condition as being “very critical.”
Mr. Meena said that the Governor had summoned Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao and Apollo Hospitals authorities at that point and had instructed them to issue a medical bulletin informing the public about the CM’s condition.
The Raj Bhavan was copied in the subsequent press releases about the CM’s health. Mr. Meena said that he did not keep track of the CM’s health till October 22, when the Governor visited again.
Mr. Meena also said that the Governor did not visit Jayalalithaa at Apollo on the night of December 4 and returned to the Raj Bhavan after being briefed about her condition at the office of Dr. Reddy.