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BJP protecting Jaya, says Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today charged the Vajpayee government at the Centre with trying to rescue J Jayalalitha, leader of the All-India Dravida Munnetra Kazagham that is the government's coalition partner. He said Jayalalitha was being protected from corruption cases to serve the central government's selfish interests.

He flayed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government's assertion before the Supreme Court that the power to transfer cases from one court lay only with the Centre. Karunanidhi alleged that the BJP was trying to defend the "Jayalalitha group" which had been found prima facie guilty by the courts of large-scale corruption while holding high public office.

"The BJP government and its machinery is geared up to save these offenders of the anti-corruption laws from the clutches of the law," he said.

The BJP government not only failed to practise what it preached, but also belied the people's expectations of a corruption-free government, he charged.

Karunanidhi said a central government officer had filed an affidavit before the Madras high court justifying the state government's order that courts of three special judges be constituted to try the corruption cases against Jayalalitha, some of her former cabinet colleagues and others. Then why had the Centre suddenly decided to transfer cases from one court to another, he asked.

The "double-standards" indicated that the BJP was not hesitating to save their allies, even those found guilty of large-scale corruption, he alleged.

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