Veteran Congress leader and former Kerala chief minister, Oommen Chandy has been airlifted to a super speciality hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday in a chartered flight arranged by the party, his family members said.
On his way to Bengaluru, 79-year-old Chandy denied reports appeared in a section of the media that his treatment was delayed by his family members.
“I don’t know how such reports emanated. They pained me and my family members,” he said. Besides his family members, a medical team and Congress member of Parliament (MP) Benny Behanan accompanied him to the Bengaluru hospital.
A controversy erupted last week after his brother and many relatives wrote a letter to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his intervention to provide best treatment to his predecessor. They alleged that his treatment for cancer was getting delayed and close family members were not allowed to meet him.
The government intervened and shifted him to NIMS Hospital in Neyyatinkara and a medical board was also constituted. Chandy was not keeping well since 2019 and he was taken to Germany a few months ago after his throat ailment aggravated and later admitted to a cancer super speciality hospital in Bengaluru. Though he was given a week’s permission to go to his native place by hospital authorities in January he did not return after this and it triggered many charges. The decision to shift him to the Bengaluru hospital was taken after his recovery from pneumonia.
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal called on him on Saturday and said the party would bear all expenses of his treatment.