Supreme Court rejects Sasikala's plea for CBI probe into Jayalalithaa's death

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by expelled AIADMK member Sasikala Pushpa seeking an impartial probe into the mysterious death of party chief Jayalalithaa. She had filed a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution demanding a CBI probe into the former CM’s death.

She had alleged that the secrecy shrouding her illness, treatment and later her death raised genuine apprehensions in the minds of the people. A bench, comprising Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and RF Nariman, however, dismissed the petition on the grounds that she had filed it as a case of violation of her fundamental rights. “How are your fundamental rights violated? How can you come under Article 32,” the bench wondered.

Instead, it asked the expelled party member to raise any concerns that she may have with the Tamil Nadu High Court which was dealing with a similar case. Pushpa had claimed that several people killed themselves or died due to shock following Jayalalithaa’s death on December 5 in a Chennai hospital.


The suspicious circumstances, arbitrary suppression of the state of her health and the silence of the authorities who are not even investigating the death of a popularlyelected leader of the stature of Jayalalithaa violates the fundamental rights of the electorate, her petition claimed.