All CCTV cameras turned off during Jayalalithaa hospitalisation, didn’t want people watching: Apollo
Following Jayalalithaa’s death, suspicion over the circumstances leading to her demise were raised by several persons, including deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and his followers.
Apollo Hospital said on Thursday that all CCTV cameras in the intensive care unit were switched off during the 75-day hospitalisation of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The hospital also said that all the patients in the ICU were shifted to other wards.
“Jayalalithaa got admitted and one ICU was completely occupied only by her. So they removed the (CCTV) footage because they did not want everyone to be watching,” Prathap C Reddy, founder chairman of Apollo hospitals told ANI on Thursday.
Reddy said all the patients on the floor where Jayalalithaa was treated were shifted to other floors because of security and other reasons.
He said when the chief minister was brought to the hospital, she was in a critical condition but had shown improvement. She later suffered a massive heart attack and breathed her last, he added.
Jayalalithaa died at Apollo Hospital on December 5, 2016. Following her death, suspicion over the circumstances leading to her demise were raised by several persons, including deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and his followers.
The Tamil Nadu government has constituted a one-man committee, headed by retired Justice A Arumughasamy, to probe the circumstances leading to the 69-year-old’s death
Jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala recounted the incident when Jayalalithaa was rushed to the hospital on September 22, 2016. In an affidavit filed before the Arumughaswamy Commission, she said, “Jayalalithaa was unwell and called for help when she was in the bathroom on the first floor of her Poes Garden residence.”
Two ambulances from Apollo hospital were called and Jayalalithaa was carried from her bedroom in an unconscious state on a stretcher. Sasikala also claimed that Jayalalithaa regained consciousness in the ambulance, where she was informed that they were en route to the hospital.