Stalin slams TN Dy CM OPS on Jayalalithaa death probe, repeats 'DMK will punish culprit'

DMK supremo MK Stalin cornered Tamil Nadu CM O Pannerselvam for allegedly 'dodging' the Arumughaswamy Commission investigating the death of ex-CM J Jayalalithaa and slammed the commission for not making a breakthrough in the case so far. Addressing a gram sabha at Coimbatore on Saturday, MK Stalin pointed out that it was OPS, not DMK, who had claimed that there was a mystery behind Jayalalithaa's death and that the DMK was hell-bent to find the culprit behind the death of the former CM and punish him. DMK and Stalin have on earlier occasions launched attacks on the AIADMK govt and the Arumughaswamy Commission for failing to ascertain the cause of Jayalalithaa's death four years after the unforeseen incident. 

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Taking on TN Dy CM OPS, MK Stalin highlighted that the senior AIADMK leader had been called eight times by the Arumughaswamy Commission to record his statement but allegedly skipped the summons. Further, Stalin claimed that OPS had stitched a deal with EPS and had accepted the position of Deputy CM. The DMK supremo pointed out that Jayalalithaa was elected as Tamil Nadu's CM by the people and slammed Edappadi Palaniswami for projecting himself as the CM face in the upcoming polls and claimed that the OPS camp & alliance partner BJP did not accept it. 

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"It has been three years since the Arumughaswamy commission was set up. Infact, the commission was the condition/reason OPS stated he returned back to the AIADMK after he split from the AIADMK. They had set up the commission with the timeline set as 3 months to find out the cause behind the former CM's death. But it has been three years. Several times the commission has given summons to them (AIADMK) an till now, no action has been taken. In the summons called, Neither OPS nor Vijayabaskar has appeared before the commission. Pannerselvam blames Vijaybaskar, and Vijaybaskar says it's OPS. If we look at all they're saying, it looks like both of them have a hand behind this", Stalin had said earlier in 2020 launching an attack on the AIADMK government. 

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9th extension for Arumughaswamy Commission

The Tamil Nadu government, in October, extended the tenure of the Arumughaswamy Commission probing the death of former CM J Jayalalithaa by three months, making it the 9th such extension given. The Arumughaswamy Commission, led by retired judge Arumughaswamy, was formed on September 25, 2017, following the demand for a probe into the late AIADMK supremo's death by the party cadre and has examined 154 witnesses till date, including ex-CM Jayalalithaa's former aide V Sasikala.  The Commission, which was granted a three-month extension on June 24, is yet to table its findings in the death of J Jayalalithaa. Further, the Commission also faces a legal hurdle at the Supreme Court after Apollo Hospitals filed a plea to stop the proceedings of the Arumughaswamy Commission, citing that the latter was allegedly working in a biased manner. In response to this, the Commission asked the TN government to file a petition revoking the stay, however, the matter is still pending in the SC. 

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