JOIN USDMK chief had role in 2G scam: AAP
Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday demanded an independent probe into the role of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi and IPS officer Jaffer Sait in the 2G spectrum scam after releasing the transcript of four new audio tapes.
Bhushan also demanded a thorough probe into Voltas land deal and various favours granted by the then DMK government to the Tata Group. The audio tapes have been made available on the Internet.
Bhushan also released the copy of a handwritten letter of Ratan Tata to Karunanidhi that extols former Communication and Information Technology minister A Raja and a document indicating donations of Rs 25 lakh by Tata Teleservices to an NGO of Kanimozhi five days prior to the grant of spectrum licenses to the company.
Referring to the CBI’s charge-sheet against Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi in the 2G case, Bhushan said that substance of the charge against her is that Shahid Balwa, whose company (Swan Telecom) eventually got some of the 2G licenses, paid more than Rs 200 crore as illegal gratification to Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd owned by family of DMK chief M Karunanidhi .
The AAP leader re-narrated the already-known story that when Raja was contacted by the CBI for his examination, in an attempt to conceal the real nature of these dubious transactions, Kalaignar TV started refunding Rs 200 crore with interest to Dynamix Realty through Cineyug Films and Kusegaon F&V.
“Four new taped conversations have surfaced, which throw more light on the abovementioned events. Prima facie, the tapes appear to be genuine and appear to be recorded by someone on a Nokia mobile phone,” said Bhushan.
The tapes contain conversations between Sait, the then chief of intelligence in Tamil Nadu and M Shanmugnathan, the Chief Minister’s secretary of then chief minister M Karunanidhi.
Another tape contains conversations between Sait and Sharad Kumar Reddy, MD Kalaingnar TV. There are also two tapes which contain conversations between Sait and Kanimozhi. Bhushan alleged that the tapes reveal that Karunanidhi was “fully in the know” of dubious cover up of Rs 200 crore.
He pointed out that the conversations also contain multiple references to the transfer of huge property by the Tata Group to Kanimozhi’s aide.
CBI analysis
“A conversation which is said to have been taken place in February-March, 2011 purportedly between Sharad Kumar Reddy of Kalaignar TV Pvt Limited and Jaffar Sait, the then Additional DGP (Intelligence) has come to the notice of CBI through media reports,” CBI spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.
CBI is in the process of obtaining the recordings and transcripts of these conversations, the spokesperson said.