CHENNAI: The Chennai police on Wednesday evening registered a case against AIADMK leader P Vetrivel for circulating a video clip of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa allegedly taken when she was undergoing treatment in the Apollo Hospital last year.
The police registered the case under IPC section 188 (disobedience of a public servant's order) and Section 126 (b) of the Representation of Peoples Act.
The move came after the Tamil Nadu Election Commission said the release of this video was against the model code of conduct and that action would be taken against those who released the video. It also issued a notice to all the media houses over the airing of the footage.
Earlier in the day, Vetrivel, a supporter of the TTV Dhinakaran camp released the 20-second video showing Jayalalithaa having fruit juice and claimed that the video was recorded during her hopsitalisation at Apollo Hospital last year.
Releasing the video to media persons at the secretariat, Vetrivel said “We have more videos. Since many people are spreading canards about Amma, we are forced to release this video.”
The video comes as a rebuttal to the AIADMK’s allegations of Sasikala being responsible for the death of Jayalalithaa and that there were irregularities in the treatments meted out to the late chief minister when she was hospitalised.
However, the surprise release of this video, just a day ahead of polling in RK Nagar has raised the eyebrows and many feel that it is aimed at garnering the support of the voters.
Social media, too, questioned the veracity of the video released by TTV Dhinakaran camp. Someone wrote: “Is the video taken at Poes Garden or at Apollo? In Apollo, she was kept in a closed door room with (sic) sealed set up, but there are (sic) trees in the window. Jayalalithaa has grey hair and (sic) use dye. But in the video, her looks dark. Please, someone, clarify.”
Earlier, Dhinakaran always maintained that they possessed videos of Jayalalithaa showing her in the hospital and recovering well. However, they had hesitated from releasing the videos since the “chief minister was clad in hospital wardrobes”, had claimed Dhinakaran.
At one point of time, Dhinakaran said he would submit the videos to retired judge A Arumughaswamy, the head of the inquiry commission probing into the death of Jayalalithaa, and would not release it to the public.
A couple of months ago, minister for forests, Dindigul C Sreenivasan, dropped a bombshell by saying that AIADMK functionaries had lied by claiming that Jayalalithaa, while she was in the hospital, was recovering well.
Sreenivasan said alleged that none of the AIADMK functionaries had met Jayalalithaa during her hospitalisation. However, a couple of other ministers contested this claim and said they had, indeed, saw Jayalalithaa during her hospitalisation.
Amid all these developments, when the talks between the factions of the AIADMK led by Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam were going on, the latter demanded that CBI inquiry should be instituted into the death of Jayalalithaa.
To assuage the feelings of the faction led by Panneerselvam, on August 17, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami ordered constitution of an inquiry commission into the death of Jayalalithaa and it started functioning from last month and has been enquiring many key persons.