Jaya breathed her last on Dec 5, 2016: AIIMS doctor

According to sources, both Dr Gaurav and his colleague Dr Nikhil Tandon were sent summons. They deposed before the commission on Wednesday, during when the former is said to have attested to the date of Jayalalithaa’s death. After little improvement in her condition, the decision was made to remove the ECMO device on December 5.

Ousted AIADMK leader V K Sasikala’s counsel Raja Senthoor Pandian said the controversy around the timing of Jayalalithaa’s death has now been definitively put to bed.

“Even to this day there are people who claim that she died as soon as the cardiac arrest took place on December 4 at 4.20 pm. With the testimony of the AIIMS doctor, who himself has used the ECMO device in over 25 cases, it has been established that cardiac arrest does not equate death. There is no truth to those claims,” he said. 

Peter Jones, the former owner of the Kodanad estate in the Nilgiris, which had served as a retreat for the former CM, also appeared before the commission on Wednesday. Jones had alleged that Jayalalithaa and Sasikala had bought the estate from him for a much lower price than quoted by him. He had claimed that he was forced to sell the property for a cheap price under duress as Jayalalithaa was the Chief Minister at that time.