Charges motivated: Jayalalithaa

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JUNE 30. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa, has termed the allegations against the Government and the police with regard to the arrest of the DMK president and former Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, as ``totally false and part of a motivated, slanderous campaign of calumny carried out by the DMK''.

Charging the DMK with carrying out such a campaign through the SUN TV and a section of the media, Ms. Jayalalithaa in a statement here tonight said, ``a detailed report on what actually transpired will be sent to the Prime Minister''. At the same time, she refuted reports about the Prime Minister trying to contact her and conveying his strong reaction about the arrest.

``This is not true at all. There has been no attempt by the Prime Minister to contact me and no telephone call was received by me from the Prime Minister's Office. On the contrary, the Prime Minister chose to speak to the Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, Mr. P. Shankar, and asked him to convey this news to me. If the Prime Minister had really desired to speak to me, I was readily available and could have been contacted over the telephone at any time,'' she said.

While detailing the sequence of events that occurred at the time of the arrest, the Chief Minister said ``the police entered Mr. Karunanidhi's residence at 1.30 a.m. on June 30 and showed him the arrest card. But they were kept waiting till 4 a.m''.

Citing the permission granted to the Union Minister, Mr. Murasoli Maran, and his family members to go inside Mr. Karunanidhi's room and to Mr. Karunanidhi's daughter, Ms. Kanimozhi, and a personal physician to accompany the DMK president inside the Chennai Central prison, Ms. Jayalalithaa said ``all these are unheard of concessions and privileges not granted to any person being arrested''.

She expressed regret that not only the Prime Minister, but even leaders of political parties who have ``been my allies in the recently concluded Assembly elections, such as the CPI, the CPI(M), the PMK and the TMC at jumping to hasty conclusions after watching the DMK-inspired propaganda of calumny and slander through media. If only, the leaders of these parties had shown a little patience, I could have explained the truth to them''.

Accusing Mr. Maran and Mr. T.R. Baalu of assaulting and abusing the police personnel, the ``audio-visual evidence of their behaviour'' is available on video-tape, Ms. Jayalalithaa said if the Prime Minister wanted to act in a fair manner, he should take action against the two Ministers and drop them from the Union Cabinet.

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