Chennai: The Apollo Hospital should confirm whether the room in which late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was seen getting admitted in a video actually exists or not, a former AIADMK MP said on Wednesday.
Reacting to the video clip showing Jayalalithaa in the hospital room after she was shifted from the intensive care unit (ICU), K.C. Palaniswamy told IANS: “It is for the Apollo Hospital to clarify whether such a room actually exists and whether the video clip is genuine.”
Over a year after Jayalalithaa’s death, P. Vetrivel, belonging to the sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dinakaran faction, released the video clip on Wednesday.
“The video was shot by (the now jailed) V.K. Sasikala after Jayalalithaa was shifted to a general room from ICU,” Vetrivel told reporters here.
The clip was released a day before the by-election in the Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai. Dinakaran is an Independent candidate in the constituency. The seat fell vacant after Jayalalithaa died.
Referring to Apollo Hospitals Group founder and Executive Chairman Prathap C. Reddy’s statement on Saturday that doctors were told not to reveal that Jayalalithaa’s condition was critical, Palaniswamy demanded to know who advised the doctors.
Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital here on September 11, 2016 and died on December 5. The hospital had said she was admitted with fever and dehydration.
Reddy said the doctors were advised not to announce that Jayalalithaa was in a critical stage as it would have become difficult to control mass emotions but he did not say who had advised the doctors.
K.S. Gita, a friend of Jayalalithaa, told a television channel that the video seems to be fabricated.
The Bharatiya Janata Party called the timing of the video release — a day before polling — improper.
Earlier, Dinakaran had stated that he would release a video clip showing Jayalalithaa in the hospital at an appropriate time.
Officials of Apollo Hospital were not available to comment on the video clip.
