Fresh confusion over Jaya's death, Apollo denies Dhivakaran's claim

In a fresh twist to the death of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, the brother of her close aide, now jailed, V K Sasikala on Wednesday said that she died on December 4, 2016 and not on December 5 as officially announced by Apollo Hospitals.

Participating at the AIADMK founder and former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran (MGR) birth centenary celebrations in Tiruvarur district, Dhivakaran said "Jayalalithaa died at 5.15 p.m. on Dec 4, 2016 and not the next day late night and the official declaration was delayed by a day so as to provide adequate security to the chain of Apollo Hospitals across the state."

His statement comes at a time when a Commission of Inquiry is probing into the circumstances that led to the hospitalisation of Jayalalithaa.

Later, he convened a press meet and said, “My statement was wrongly construed. Jayalalithaa suffered ‘clinical death’ on December 4, after which Apollo Hospitals specialists tried strenuously to revive her. But on December 5 she suffered ‘biological death.’ Doctors from the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Government General Hospital certified her death after which the Apollo Hospital formally announced her demise."

Reacting to Divakaran's statement, Apollo Hospitals said, "It is unfortunate that unnecessary confusion is being created based on certain misinformation about the date and time of the demise of our former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who expired on December 5, 2016."

The hospital said all clinical protocols and norms had been followed during the course of treatment to her. "The unfortunate declaration of death was done as per standard clinical protocols," it said.

"Any distortion of the facts would be extremely unfortunate and unjust to all the caregivers and the medical experts, both from India and abroad, who relentlessly rendered medical treatment to our former chief minister. Moreover, there is a process of inquiry which is being conducted by an eminent body to go through all the facts leading to her demise. We would like the matter to be clarified at the earliest in the interest of truth and justice," it said.