Former Secretary to Jayalalithaa A. Ramalingam, IAS, on Monday reportedly told the Commission of Inquiry looking into the former Chief Minister’s death that, during her hospitalisation, the Department of Information and Public Relations had issued press releases on her health. Mr. Ramalingam, now Commissioner, Directorate of Art and Culture, who had been summoned by Justice (Retd.) A. Arumughaswamy, was cross-examined by Apollo Hospitals’ legal counsel Maimoona Badsha. “In his cross-examination, he has admitted that all the press statements released during the 75 days of the honourable late CM’s hospitalisation with respect to her medical condition were released by the government through its own Department of Information and Public Relations,” she told reporters. COO’s statement Last Friday, when confronted with certain discrepancies in how the releases and discharge summary described Jayalalithaa’s condition, Apollo’s Chief Operating Officer Subbiah Viswanathan had told the Commission that he had signed on all releases. The statements were printed on the hospital’s letterhead. Dr. Viswanathan had said that he had not drafted those statements: a medical team had done so, after which a review team went through them. He told the panel that the Chief Secretary and Health Secretary were also members of the team. “It has not been released by Apollo [Hospitals]; it has been released by the government,” Ms. Badsha added.

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