The High Court of Madras has stayed the comparison of left-hand thumb impressions (LTIs) of former Tamil Nadu chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa, who passed away last December under mysterious circumstances, by the Justice Arumuga Swamy (Retd.) Commission of Inquiry (COI) set up by the Govt. of Tamil Nadu to probe into circumstances which led to the mysterious demise of ‘Puratchithalaivi’.

The High Court passed the stay order while taking up a petition filed with it by AIADMK leader and incumbent Tiruparankundram MLA A.K. Bose. During last year’s by-polls held in Tiruparankundram, Bose defeated DMK’s Dr. Saravanan but the latter challenged the former’s victory by filing a petition with the High Court requesting it to declare Bose’s victory as ‘null and void’.

In his petition, Saravanan said that Jayalalithaa was reportedly unconscious when she is said to have affixed h LTI on the papers nominating Bose as the candidate. “It ought to be verified/checked and found out whether Jayalalithaa was actually conscious when she affixed her LTI in the form meant for Election Commission with the request to allot the ‘Two-Leaves’ symbol to Bose to contest the by-polls.

Responding to this, the High Court had directed Prison Superintendent of Bangalore’s Parappana Agrahara Prison to appear before it with copies of Jayalalithaa’s LTI (taken during the prison term served by her in 2015). Superintendent Mohanraj appeared before the Court and deposed that no LTI was taken during Jayalalithaa’s prison term at Parappana.

Bose then filed a petition requesting the Court to bar the Prison officials from filing statement with the Court on Jayalalithaa’s LTI taken at the prison. Taking up his petition, the Court barred the Prison officials from filing a report on the late chief-minister’s LTI. It also stayed the trial in the case and barred inspection/comparison of the late chief-minister’s finger impressions.