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CHENNAI: The expulsion of VK Sasikala and her family from the trusted circle of J Jayalalithaa happened after the former chief minister’s interactions with her confidant and journalist Cho Ramaswamy, according to an affidavit filed by Sasikala with the judicial commission probing the death of the AIADMK leader.Sasikala, currently in jail after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa and others, has described the circumstances around her banishment in December 2011 in the affidavit. “Thiru. Cho has given me some information. I shall tell you all about it later. Till such time, you may stay in the T Nagar House,” Sasikala states as being told by Jayalalithaa in the 55-page, 99-graf document, which has been read in its entirety by ET.N Raja Senthoor Pandian, Sasikala’s lawyer, told ET, “Yes. It is part of the affidavit.”Jayalalithaa had begun a cleansing of the party during the “beginning and middle” of 2011, when she distanced party persons whose activities had been against the welfare of the party, according to Sasikala. “All of them had utilised the circumstances to spread misinformation against me,” says Sasikala in the affidavit. However, Jayalalithaa had come to know, “within a short span of time”, that it was all wrong. “All that reached me were incorrect information. Come to Poes Garden immediately,” Sasikala remembers Jayalalithaa telling her. Among those expelled was TTV Dinakaran , who is the son of Sasikala’s sister Vanithamani.The public apology that Sasikala tendered in March 2012 — in which she declared any relative who may have conspired was “persona nongrata” — was also a suggestion that Cho had given Jayalalithaa, according to Sasikala.“I have never intervened in political or administrative matters. Akka will call authorities directly for discussions,” Sasikala says in the affidavit, qualifying, however, that she had passed on the information to “second-rung leaders” in the party.On events ahead of Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation, Sasikala says the former Chief Minister had blood and urine tests done by staff of Apollo Hospitals three days before she was hospitalised in September 2016. Intermittent fever on September 19, 2016, prompted Sasikala to call her relative and doctor KS Sivakumar, who had arranged for the tests to be conducted by experts from Apollo Hospitals.On September 22, Sasikala pleaded with a “very fatigued” Jayalalithaa for a visit to the hospital. “I will be alright if I sleep. They will ask me to get admitted if I were to go to the hospital. All that is unnecessary,” Jayalalithaa had replied. Sivakumar had made a third visit to the Garden at 9 pm on that day, claims Sasikala. Around 9.30 pm Jayalalithaa had called out: “Sasi, I’m feeling giddy. Come here.” Jayalalithaa, helped to her bed by Sasikala, had fainted suddenly. Sivakumar, who had entered the room, had rubbed the CM’s hands and feet to generate heat, and had called Apollo Hospitals for emergency medical services.In a cross-examination, former Chief Secretary Rama Mohana Rao had said an informal plan to fly Jayalalithaa out of the country for treatment “never took a shape”.Significantly, Richard Beale, a London-based intensivist, had said he would return to take Jayalalithaa along with him for treatment in London once “she recovers enough for travel; during the long journey they should not be even a small inconvenience…”On recovery, Jayalalithaa had begun to stand and walk, based on the consultation of doctors, Sasikala states in the affidavit. She (Jayalalithaa) had even decided to get discharged on December 29 for she found it to be an auspicious day. Just ahead of a heart attack on December 4, 2016, Jayalalithaa had uttered “have a little patience, Sasi,” in her response to Sasikala’s insistence that she has tea before it goes cold. She was declared dead later the next day, before which the hospital had installed an extracorporeal life support system.