Centre bending law to protect Jayalalitha,
says Karunanidhi
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today accused the A B Vajpayee government of bending the law to bail out its alliance partner, All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha, and others from the corruption cases against them.
In a statement in Madras, he said the additional secretary in the Union law ministry under AIADMK politician M Thambidurai had exerted pressure on officials on the telephone while the deputy secretary (personnel and training) had rushed to the city and was interfering with judicial administration.
This, he said, was being done despite the fact that Jayalalitha's petition against the high court order upholding the appointment of special judges to try corruption cases against her is to come up in the Supreme Court on February 15.
Karunanidhi said he does not know whether Prime Minister Vajpayee is aware of the developments, but the officials are obviously acting under pressure from Thambidurai.
Instead of concentrating on solving the problems of the country, the BJP-led government, which had made tall claims about eradicating corruption in high places, is trying to save Jayalalitha, he said.
The Centre and the Tamil Nadu government have been fighting a pitched battle on the "special courts" ever since the former told the Supreme Court in December last year that it alone has the power to transfer cases from one court to another under section 4(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The state government contended that the special judges were appointed with the consent of the Madras high court. But the Centre, particularly Thambidurai, charged the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in the state with usurping its power to wreak political vengeance on Jayalalitha and some of her former ministers.
Even as Jayalalitha's petition was pending before the apex court, the personnel ministry wrote to the state government, seeking details of the transfer of corruption cases to the special courts and the correspondence that took place between the state government and the high court registrar while appointing the special judges.
Karunanidhi, who acknowledged receipt of the letter, said his government had replied to it in detail but refused to divulge the details, stating that the matter was sub judice.
When Thambidurai questioned the validity of the special courts while the bill enacted by the state assembly was awaiting the President's assent, the state government clarified that it had not constituted the special courts but only appointed special judges.
With the Supreme Court declining to stay the trial proceedings before the three special judges, trial in a couple of corruption cases against Jayalalitha and her associate Sasikala Natarajan has already begun. But the trials were stopped after the judge agreed with Sasikala's demand and ordered that the prosecution provide her copies of documents in Tamil.
UNI
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