Dismissing a medical report of experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as a “copy” of the Apollo Hospitals case summary of Jayalalithaa, the Arumughasamy Commission of inquiry, set up to look into the circumstances leading to the former Chief Minister’s death, has recommended another investigation into the conduct of her confidante V.K. Sasikala and three others.
The AIIMS team included India’s foremost experts G.C. Khilnani, professor, department of pulmonary medicine; R.K. Narang, professor of cardiology; Anjan Trikha, professor, department of anaesthesia and critical care; and V. Devagourou, professor, department of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery.
Arumughasamy is not a medical practitioner by qualification and no doctor was a member of the Commission.
The report was tabled in the State Assembly on October 18. The Commission was constituted in 2017 because of a political compulsion of the then AIADMK government, and it sought and obtained several extensions. It did not find any fault in the circumstances leading up to Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation on September 22, 2016.
Mindless assertions
The Commission said: “Quite surprisingly, there was manifest and culpable lapses noticeable on the part of those who volunteered to assume the responsibility of acting in the best interest of late Chief Minister, to the exclusion of all others, especially when late Chief Minister was confined to her hospital bed and it was the only privileged few around her guiding her destiny. The whole line of treatment was shrouded in secrecy and there was lack of transparency, as much as there was no authentic and reliable disclosure of facts pertaining to her exact health condition and the course of treatment.”
A perusal of records from the AIIMS panel, the government, and Apollo Hospitals indicates otherwise. There was consultation at each stage and key members of the Central government were kept informed at all stages.
Stretching logic and reason, the Commission also concluded that investigations must be ordered against Sasikala, K.S. Sivakumar, a doctor related to her, former Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan, and former Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar.
It also wanted investigations into doctors including Y.V.C. Reddy, Babu Abraham, the then Chief Secretary Rama Mohan Rao, and Apollo Hospitals chairman Prathap C. Reddy.
In including two bureaucrats and three doctors from Apollo, the Commission has stretched the limits of reason: neither the Chief Secretary nor the Health Secretary are responsible for the treatment regimens of anyone, including the Chief Minister. Also, a decision on whether to take a Chief Minister abroad and which doctors to summon too does not rest on them. Two of the three doctors from Apollo have been included because of a specific line of treatment that the Commission asserts was not rendered.
A government order issued by the Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu (G.O. No. SS.II/500-4/2022) dated October 17, 2022, said: “The report of the Commission of Inquiry was discussed in the Cabinet meeting held on August 29, 2022. ....Considering that the Commission had disagreed with certain aspects of the AIIMS Doctors Committee’s Report, it was decided to initiate appropriate action on the Commission of Inquiry report’s recommendations against certain individuals, after obtaining the considered opinion of legal experts.”
