AIIMS doctors check Dayalu Ammal fitness

A team of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, on Saturday, examined the physical fitness of Dayalu Ammal, wife of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, to ascertain if she was in a position to depose before a Delhi court as a witness in the 2G spectrum case.
AIIMS doctors check Dayalu Ammal fitness

A team of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on Saturday, examined the physical fitness of Dayalu Ammal, wife of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, to ascertain if she was in a position to depose before a Delhi court as a witness in the 2G spectrum case.

The examination followed a directive from the Supreme Court, which is hearing a petition filed by Dayalu

Ammal’s daughter Selvi, seeking exemption for her mother from appearance in the case.

Highly placed sources in the DMK told Express that a team of three doctors — Dr A B Dey (Chief, Geriatric Services), Dr Manjari Tripathi (Professor of Neurology) and Dr Nandakumar (Psychiatrist) — accompanied by an administrative person from AIIMS, reached Chennai at 9.40 am and headed straight to the government guest house in Chepauk.

They reached Dayalu Ammal’s Gopalapuram residence at around 11.20 am. Sources said almost immediately after their arrival, Karunanidhi left for party headquarters Anna Arivalayam. Selvi, M K Stalin’s son-in-law Sabarisan and Dayalu Ammal’s son M K Thamizharasu were the family members present during the examination. Also present were Karunanidhi’s family doctor Gopal and city-based neurologist A V Srinivasan. During the course of the examination in her bedroom, sources said the doctors did a number of tests to check her memory as well as her reflexes. One of the doctors also asked a few questions to Dayalu Ammal to check the coherence in her speech. Sources said she did reply, but failed to confirm if her answers to the questions were right.

But importantly, sources said the doctors spent a considerable amount of time examining her past medical records and made a note of the treatment she had undergone. The doctors then left at around 1 pm.

In May, the CBI court had dismissed the plea of Dayalu Ammal for exemption from appearance, stating that she was an important witness in the case given that she was a major stakeholder (60 per cent) in Kalaignar TV to which the bribe amount of Rs 200 crore from the 2G spectrum scam was allegedly routed.

The CBI had also charged Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi, another stakeholder in Kalaignar TV, in the case after which she spent time in Delhi’s Tihar jail. Dayalu Ammal, on the other hand, was listed only as a witness with the CBI citing the minutes of a 2007 meeting of Kalaignar TV where she had expressed her inability to pay attention to company affairs.

The report of the AIIMS doctors will be submitted before the Supreme Court, which is now seized of the exemption plea.

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