On a day when the AIADMK general council meeting resolved appointing Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala as the party general secretary, a fresh controversy surrounding former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s death ignited today when Justice Vaidyalingam of the Madras High Court expressed doubts over her demise.

“Media has raised a lot of doubts, personally I also have doubts in Jayalalithaa’s death,” said Justice Vaidyalingam. He was hearing a petition demanding an inquiry into the former chief minister’s death. “When she was admitted in hospital, it was said that she was on proper diet. At least after her death now, truth should be revealed,” he said.

The judge also went on to say that the court could order the exhumation and post-mortem of Jayalalithaa’s body. Petitioner PA Joseph, a city resident, listed the sequence of events since Jayalalithaa’s admission to Apollo Hospital here on September 22 and claimed that the “secrecy” preceding her death gave rise to “grave doubts” in the minds of the people.

The public interest litigation, which listed 12 respondents, including the Apollo Hospitals chairman, is likely to be taken up for hearing by the vacation bench of the court on December 29.

The petitioner pleaded that the commission must peruse all the records, reports and documents in possession of the government as well as the hospital and look into “several questionable incidents”, including her sudden hospitalisation, reported recovery and the subsequent cardiac arrest resulting in her death on December.

Several petitions, including one moved by expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala, have been filed in courts over Jayalalithaa’s death. She breathed her last on December 5, days after suffering a cardiac arrest. She spent 75 days at Apollo Hospitals in Chennai under specialist care.