CHENNAI: AM Arun, the founder of Tamil Nadu-based Vasan Eye Care, who started his career in healthcare from Trichy, passed away in Chennai on Monday. He was 51.
The city police on Monday registered a case of suspicious death after a few relatives raised doubt in the death of the founder of Vasan Eye Care A M Arun who passed away earlier on the day allegedly due to cardiac arrest.
According to police, Arun was declared dead on arrival at Kauvery Hospital in Teynampet on Monday morning. Sources said that Arun allegedly suffered chest pain in the morning and was brought to the hospital. His body was then sent to the Omandurar Multispecialty Hospital for an autopsy.
After the postmortem, the body was handed over to his relatives on Monday afternoon.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, a police official said a few relatives and friends of Arun raised suspicion over the cause of his death. "They claimed that he could've killed himself, and created ruckus at the hospital," said the police officer.
Based on their statements, the Teynampet police registered a case of suspicious death under section 174 of CrPC. While further investigations are on.
A senior police officer said, "The preliminary verbal postmortem report from the doctor, who did the autopsy, said that there are no traces of suicide or murder and it looks like a natural death. We are waiting for the autopsy report along with the viscera report."
Arun initially took over his family medical shop in Trichy and later set up an eye care hospital in that city. Years later, this grew into a huge network. There are now over 100 hospitals under Vasan Eye Care throughout the country along with several Vasan Dental care centers.
The group has over 600 ophthalmologists and over 6,000 staff members. The group was certified as ‘World’s Largest Eye Care provider with the maximum number of standalone surgical centres’ in 2011 by Frost & Sullivan, a US-based growth strategy and research firm.