Tamil Nadu by-polls: The curious tale of Jayalalithaa's doctor and Rs 5 lakh
In a strange, convoluted manner, the income tax raids on properties associated with Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar on Friday (April 7), have found links to what happened inside Apollo Hospitals in Chennai between September 22 and December 5, 2016, when former chief minister J Jayalalithaa was hospitalised.
Among the list of documents seized, a curious entry of Rs 5 lakh "given to Dr Balaji for expenses — home minister's instructions" has aroused suspicion and made people wonder why the doctor was given that amount.
Dr Balaji is important because this professor of minimal access surgery at the Madras Medical College attested Jayalalithaa's thumb impression on "Form B" that was submitted to the Election Commission.
This was when the three by-elections in Thanjavur, Aravakurichi and Thiruparankundram were to be held on November 19. Dr Balaji certified on the document on October 27, writing: "Since the signatory has undergone tracheostomy recently and has an inflamed right hand, she is temporarily unable to affix her signature. Hence, she has affixed her left thumb impression on her own in my presence.''
After the document with the Rs 5 lakh entry came to light over the weekend, in a telephonic interview to The Hindu (Tamil edition), Dr Balaji said the entry was made because the money was given to him to pay Dr Richard Beale's hotel bills at Taj Coromandel in Chennai.
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| The Panneerselvam camp alleges that Vijayabaskar is VK Sasikala's conduit in many of the financial transactions. |
According to Dr Balaji, the Apollo group had booked Dr Beale at Raintree Hotel, which he did not like and wanted to shift to Taj. Apollo, Dr Balaji claims, refused to pick up the tab for Taj and therefore the health minister pitched in with his money.
A day later, however, Dr Balaji took a U-turn, denying he had anything to do with the money. He put out a press release that refuted that he had received any money as fee or otherwise and also denied he settled any hotel bills for Dr Beale. He said it was done directly by the minister's personal assistant.
If that was the case, why has Dr Balaji's name been mentioned in the accounts prepared reportedly by the minister's accountant, is not clear. What makes his story more shady is Apollo Hospitals version that claims that it also paid for Dr Beale's stay at the Taj in October 2016.
Since the document mentioning money given to Dr Balaji has now been unearthed, it is imperative that the minister be interrogated. This is necessary in context of the several questions that have been raised surrounding Jayalalithaa's demise. Health secretary J Radhakrishnan, known to be an upright IAS officer, also needs to come clean on murky dealings within the ministry.
From the evidence available, Dr Balaji seems to have been a favorite with Vijayabaskar. A five-member committee of Tamil Nadu government doctors was constituted to monitor Jayalalithaa's condition. The committee was headed by Dr Balaji.
"His specialisation is in laparoscopy, which had nothing to do with Jayalalithaa's ailments,'' said A Narayanan, a development activist. However, sources say it is routine for governments to form supervisory committees and they need not necessarily include doctors who are specialists.
NGO Change India, which has also petitioned the governor, alleges that Dr Balaji's appointment as member secretary of the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN), a key government body to regulate and monitor organ transplant and cadaver-organ harvesting, done mostly through corporate hospitals, raises eyebrows.
The appointment was reportedly made just days after he signed on "Form B". "He has no knowledge about organ transplant and his appointment reeks of nepotism and favouritism,'' says Narayanan.
Much of this raises a question mark over the manner in which the health ministry operated under Vijayabaskar.
On Wednesday (April 12), DMK leaders met governor Vidyasagar Rao to ask him to dismiss chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami and all ministers, whose name figure in a document that suggests cash was being distributed for votes. I-T authorities believe that the distribution of cash for RK Nagar by-polls was being coordinated by Vijayabaskar, but suggest that he had been under surveillance for more than three months now.
The Panneerselvam camp alleges Vijaybhaskar is VK Sasikala's "benami" and is a conduit in many of the financial transactions.
Indeed some of the health minister's choices do not seem above board. For instance, Dr S Geethalakshmi who was appointed as the vice-chancellor of the Dr MGR Medical University in December 2015. Her residence also was raided on Friday. Incidentally, she was part of the team of V-Cs that went to Poes Garden to plead with Sasikala to take over the reins of the state and the party in December last year.
That meeting created a furore since vice-chancellors are not supposed to take political positions. But the V-Cs did not deem it necessary to apologise for their unbecoming conduct.
Now the high court has rejected Dr Geethalakshmi's plea that the I-T summons against her be dismissed. She appeared before the I-T sleuths on April 12, but there is no word on whether she will step down as V-C on moral grounds.
When Jayalalithaa was hospitalised, it was believed that the government was on a pause mode. The documents indicating monumental corruption now make one believe that this Tamil Nadu government is of the AIADMK, for the AIADMK and by the AIADMK.