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Home  » News » Raja's arrest, a purely political decision: Jaya

Raja's arrest, a purely political decision: Jaya

Source: PTI
February 02, 2011 19:10 IST
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All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said the arrest of former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G Spectrum scam raised more questions than answers and alleged that it was a "purely political" decision keeping in mind Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.

She also demanded the arrest of others, including immediate family members of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi, allegedly involved in the scam and said her party will not give up its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the scam despite Raja's arrest.

Asked whether the arrest had something to do with Congress and DMK firming up their alliance with the visit of Karunanidhi to Delhi two days ago, she said the whole thing looked "very artificial and deeply suspicious".

She believed that the decision to arrest Raja was taken keeping in mind the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. It was a "purely political" decision, she said.

"Raja's arrest raises more questions than it answers and many questions have been left unanswered. This arrest can be described only as an action too little, too late," she said. Alleging that the action came three years late, she said, "The government would have arrested him three years ago, at least two years, one year or even when the Supreme Court asked why Raja was not arrested."

Jayalalithaa said the government was contradicting itself as its different arms were giving contradictory statements.

"The government has contradicted itself. CAG says the allocation has led to enormous loss to the tune of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. But, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, whom I presume spoke on behalf of the government, claims that Raja did not cause any loss to the exchequer and even came up with an argument of zero loss. But then why did CBI, another arm of the government, arrest him. If Raja had done nothing wrong, why has he been arrested?" the AIADMK leader posed.
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