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N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai
Without naming former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief minister M Karunanidhi and Tamil superstar Rajnikanth as 'targets', editor of Tamil biweekly, Nakkeeran, R Rajagopal alias Gopal, on Monday alleged that the Tamil Nadu police was trying to 'implicate' a senior politician and a leading film actor in the Rajakumar abduction case.
Talking to newsmen in Chennai on Monday, at the end of his 10-day-long, court-approved interrogation by the state police in Gobichettipalayam, he said, "The police asked me more than a thousand questions."
"Most of them did not pertain to the kidnap episode," he added. "The police questioned me on those whom I had met, or talked to, before and after my meetings with forest brigand Veerappan."
"They asked for details of my conversations with senior leaders of the then state government," he said, in an obvious reference to Karunanidhi.
Gopal further said that one of the investigating officers had quizzed him about the role of a 'leading film actor in Tamil Nadu in obtaining freedom for Rajakumar', and why that actor had shown 'extra interest' in the matter.
Gopal was referring to Rajnikanth, given his frequent contacts with Gopal at the height of the rescue efforts mounted to save Rajakumar.
Gopal also charged the Crime Branch-CID with threatening him with cancellation of his anticipatory bail, for failure to 'cooperate' in the investigations.
"They are now trying to implicate me and my colleagues in the kidnap case," he charged.
Gopal said Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna had agreed to stand by an 'indemnity promise' given to his team at the height of the Rajakumar abduction, whereas the Tamil Nadu government, under the AIADMK dispensation, has seemingly gone back on the promise given by its predecessor.
Krishna gave the assurance to a team of Tamil Nadu journalists, led by Frontline editor N Ram, recently, Gopal recalled.
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