On Jayalalithaa's death anniversary, niece Deepa Jayakumar renews calls for CBI probe into aunt's demise

On the first death anniversary of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, her niece Deepa Jayakumar has reopened the calls for a CBI probe into her aunt’s death, alleging that there was a criminal conspiracy behind the “murder” of the AIADMK chief. Speaking to CNN-News18, Jayakumar said the one-man committee probing Jayalalithaa’s death will not work out and “won’t help in any way”. She said only an independent CBI probe will set right the mystery surrounding Jayalalithaa’s death.

#BREAKING | A year after Jayalalithaa’s death, her niece Deepa Jayakumar speaks to CNN-News18’s @nimumurali; says it is a murder and demands CBI probe pic.twitter.com/lAmvKHhEdG

— News18 (@CNNnews18) December 5, 2017

“I never for a minute thought that that this commission will function properly. I always said that a CBI probe will be a better solution, because this one-man committee is not going to work out and it’s not going to help in any way,” she was quoted as saying. [caption id=“attachment_4242777” align=“alignleft” width=“385”]  J Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar at her aunt’s burial in Chennai. PTI[/caption] In September this year, Justice (Retd) Arumugasamy was appointed to head a one-man inquiry commission to probe the circumstances leading to the death of Jayalalithaa, who died on 5 December, 2016, after spending 75 days undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai. An official release said, “To conduct inquiry and submit a report on the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, an inquiry commission headed by retired high court judge Justice Arumugasamy has been constituted.” A government order had been issued for this purpose, it added. However, Jayakumar said the committee will be controlled by the state government and will be influenced by people with vested interests. “It’s going to be controlled by the state government and its authorities, and will be influenced by Sasikala and her family members,” she alleged. She added that the committee probing the death needs to be given a free hand in investigating everybody involved. “If they’re not going to probe the state government, or Apollo Hospital, or the staff and security personnel at Poes Garden, let them not probe this case at all,” she added. Doubts have been raised over the events leading to Jayalalithaa’s death, and her hospitalisation on 22 September, 2016, with Opposition parties including the DMK demanding a CBI probe. Jayakumar too had made a similar demand in the past, when she had said the one-man committee will just be an “ eyewash”. “I don’t find any point of setting up this on this inquiry commission. I would request the Centre to constitute a CBI inquiry in this issue. Otherwise it will just be an eye-wash,” Deepa said. With inputs from agencies