Charge all M Karunanidhi kin, says Jaya

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Alleging that chief minister M. Karunanidhi had “characteristically” come up with a “convoluted defence” of his daughter Kanimozhi after she was indicted by the CBI in the 2G scam, AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa on Saturday asked the agency to chargesheet all the family members of the CM “as they have all benefitted” from the swindle.

“The Rs 1,76,000 crore spectrum scam is very real. (Former Union communications and IT minister) Raja is involved in it. Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV and the entire Karunanidhi family, including Karunanidhi himself, have derived benefit from it not only here but in the form of pay-offs in tax havens abroad as well,” she said and said that it would be better if Mr Karunanidhi, instead of “blaming all and sundry,” did some serious introspection.

“I insist that it (CBI) has fallen short by naming only Kanimozhi in the chargesheet. The entire Karunanidhi family is involved. And all should be charge-sheeted if the interests of justice are to be met,” she said.

Describing as “balderdash” the chief minister’s contention that he was defending his daughter for the sake of the party’s image and that she was a party worker, Ms Jayalalithaa wondered if he expected his party workers to believe this. He had denied the scam itself and sought to blame the developments relating to it as part of “an upper-caste conspiracy against his brand of Dravidian politics”.

“When cornered, he throws muck all round and sends everyone scurrying for cover, while he seeks an escape route...,” she alleged.

Posing a set of questions to Mr Karunanidhi, Ms Jayalalithaa asked if Dayalu Ammal was a stakeholder of Kalaignar TV on her own strength or whether she represented her branch of the Karunanidhi family.

Also, she wanted to know how much money Ms Kanimozhi invested and the source of money as well as the contentious transfer of Rs 214 crore from DB Realty to Kalaignar TV.