DMK in fix over charge against Kanimozhi

The additional charge-sheet relating to the payment trail of Rs. 214 crore, from a beneficiary firm of spectrum allocation by former Telecom minister A Raja to ‘Kalaignar TV’ omits the name of Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal, who holds a 60 per cent stake in the channel. On the other hand Kanimozhi, a 20 per cent stake-holder, being termed a ‘co-conspirator’ by the CBI has jolted the DMK.

The ruling party’s top brass including Kanimozhi and Karunanidhi’s son M K Stalin was holding a high-level meeting on Monday evening after the latest developments in Delhi. Karunanidhi had, earlier in the day, virtually ruled out withdrawal of DMK support to the Congress-led UPA at the Centre if his close family members were named in the case.
“I don’t know anything about the charge-sheet,” asserted Karunanidhi at a press conference he had summoned hurriiedly at the new Secretariat building to refute the AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha’s claim that important files were being  ‘destroyed’ under the guise of shifting government departments from the old Secretariat building to the new premises. “We will legally take action against Jayalalitha’s canard aimed at defaming us, as several key departments have already been shifted here after the Prime Minister inaugurated it last year,”Karunanidhi said.

What worried Karunanidhi more was the ‘2G’ case-related developments. When a newsperson persisted with that query, he retorted, “As a woman reporter, have you flung away your heart?”

Sources close to the DMK chief point out that the party was not contemplating any extreme step at this stage vis-à-vis the Centre, for it had just fought the Assembly election in alliance with the Congress. The poll results were due on May 13 and the DMK might still need the Congress’ support to form a coalition government if no clear cut mandate emerged, the sources pointed out. Moreover, Kanimozhi had been asked to receive the charge-sheet at the CBI Court in Delhi on May 6, which meant she was unlikely to be arrested immediately.

Jayalalitha kept up the pressure on the DMK and said in a statement that the fresh charge-sheet in the 2G case had “clearly established the link” between some key beneficiaries of the spectrum largesse and Karunanidhi’s family.   

She lobbied for Raja, says probe agency
New Delhi, pti: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's daughter and MP Kanimozhi had "actively" lobbied for "re-appointment" of A Raja as Telecom Minister in UPA II government as the process for allocation of 2G spectrum was initiated in his first tenure in the ministry in 2008.The evidence and material collected by CBI has been placed along with the second charge sheet to buttress its claim that Kanimozhi had played an active role in 2G spectrum scam. "Kanimozhi actively pursued with the intermediaries and DMK headquarters the matter regarding reappointment of accused A Raja as Minister of Communications and Information Technology in 2009, which clearly establishes the strong association of Kanimozhi and A Raja in the officials/political matters," the probe agency, in its 31-page supplememtary chargesheet, said.