Coimbatore: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday said former chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao was lying when he told the Justice Arumugaswamy Commission probing Jayalalithaa hospitalisation and death that some ministers, including Velumani and Thangamani, were present in the hospital when she suffered heart attack. The ex-bureaucrat was “trying to satisfy someone”, he told reporters here.
Ministers Velumani and Thangamani too slammed Rao accusing him of lying “to please, to save” Sasikala Natarajan, who had been in complete control of all affairs relating to Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation and treatment. Speaking to reporters at the Namakkal Collector's office, Thangamani said Rama Mohana Rao had lied to the Commission. "When Amma suffered heart attack, I was in Rasipuram and Velumani was in Thiruvananthapuram. He (Rao) had gone to Thanjavur two days prior to the deposition and returned to utter this lie”, Thangamani said.
He said a group of ministers, including himself, along with Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambi Durai, had asked him a couple of times if Jayalalithaa could be taken to London for treatment. Rao told him he would check and let them know but nothing happened, Thangamani said.
Minister S. P. Velumani told reporters at Coimbatore that Justice Arumugaswamy Commission should “closely probe who he (Rama Mohana Rao) was trying to save and satisfy when he said all those lies”. “Even OPS, who was then the Chief Minister, was not allowed to see Amma”, Velumani said.
