TN: Founder of Vasan Eye Care passes away at 51; kin files suspicious death case

Written by Sanchari Chattopadhyay Published On 2020-11-17T09:30:50+05:30 | Updated On 17 Nov 2020 9:30 AM IST

TN: Founder of Vasan Eye Care passes away at 51; kin files suspicious death case

Chennai: The founder of one of the largest eye care providers of Tamil Nadu, Vasan Eye Care's owner, AM Arun passed away in Chennai at the age of 51.

As per various media accounts, Arun was found lying motionless in his home and was rushed to the hospital, however, all in vain as he could not be saved. It was confirmed that he died due to cardiac arrest.

However, on Monday the city police registered a case of death under suspicious circumstances after the kin of the deceased raised doubt on the sudden death.

While a corporate hospital here stated that he was brought dead, the police, quoting preliminary inputs, mentioned that the death appeared to be only of natural causes. However, the body has been sent for a postmortem. The body was sent to Omandurar Multispecialty Hospital for an autopsy.

"He (Dr Arun) was found motionless in his home and was rushed to a hospital. We understand from the inputs that his death was not by suicide," a senior police official told PTI.

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The New Indian Express reports that the body was delivered to the bereaved family members of the deceased doctor on Monday afternoon. When some of the friends and family expressed their suspicion over the death, the Teynampet police registered a case of suspicious death under section 174 of CrPC.

One of the Police officers told the daily that they claimed that he could've killed himself, and created ruckus at the hospital." A senior police officer told the daily, "The preliminary verbal postmortem report from the doctor, who did the autopsy, said that there are no traces of suicide or murder and it looks like a natural death. We are waiting for the autopsy report along with the viscera report."

However, police are still investigating the case to unravel every angle of the incident.

According to Vasan eyecare's website, Arun had followed the footsteps of his grandfather and built a healthcare group that provided affordable treatment. He ventured into the healthcare business by taking over a small medical shop in Tiruchirappalli with a reputation of over 60 years and went on to build a network of eye care hospitals in multiple locations.

There are now over 100 hospitals under Vasan Eye Care throughout the country along with several Vasan Dental care centers. The group has over 600 ophthalmologists and over 6,000 staff members. Frost & Sullivan, a US-based growth strategy and research firm certified it as 'World's Largest Eye Care provider with the maximum number of standalone surgical centers' in 2011.

The healthcare group, which includes Vasan Healthcare Private Limited and Vasan Medical Centre (India) Private Limited, had faced searches by the income tax department on their premises and an appeal connected to the proceedings also was filed in the Madras High Court.

The News Minute reports that this came after controversies emerged regarding the financial condition of the institution and the income tax department conducted the search in the residence of the deceased in 2015. The Enforcement Directorate has also conducted several probes into the financial dealings of the group. After this Alcon laboratories approached the High Court against Vasan eye care. The case is pending before the National Company Law Tribunal in Chennai as of June 2020.

Congress Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga, Karti P Chidambaram, in his Twitter handle, expressed grief as, "Deeply saddened by the untimely passing away of my dear friend & entrepreneur Dr Arun @vasanhealth. He was a pioneer who envisioned & built a great company which attracted big PE @Sequoia_India @sequoia @Temasek, unfortunately was hounded by agencies for collateral purposes. RIP."

Deeply saddened by the untimely passing away of my dear friend & entrepreneur Dr Arun @vasanhealth He was a pioneer who envisioned & built a great company which attracted big PE @Sequoia_India @sequoia @Temasek, unfortunately was hounded by agencies for collateral purposes. RIP https://t.co/YuQgpqDVIy
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) November 16, 2020

Vasan Eye Caresuspicious deathfounder vasan eye caream arun

Source : with inputs

Sanchari Chattopadhyay

Sanchari Chattopadhyay has pursued her M.A in English and Culture Studies from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal. She likes observing cultural specificities and exploring new places.