Raja not named in ex-CJI’s mail on judge: Law minister

In a fresh twist to the controversy over allegations that former telecom minister A Raja tried to influence a Madras high court judge in 2009, law minister M Veerappa Moily spoke out in support of former chief justice of India KG Balakrishnan and, indirectly, Raja. Nagendar Sharma reports.

In a fresh twist to the controversy over allegations that former telecom minister A Raja tried to influence a Madras high court judge in 2009, law minister M Veerappa Moily spoke out in support of former chief justice of India KG Balakrishnan and, indirectly, Raja.

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Moily on Thursday said the letter sent to him as a report on the matter named no minister.

Justice HL Gokhale, the then chief justice of the high court, has insisted that Balakrishnan was aware it was Raja who tried to influence Justice S Regupathi as it was in the complaint. The ex-CJI has denied this.

A day after Balakrishnan said he had not suppressed any facts but had brought the matter to the notice of the law minister in August 2009, Moily said the government had closed the file as it could not take any action in the matter.

“No name of any minister was mentioned in the letter written to me by the then CJI in response to my letter based on a memorandum by MPs submitted to the PM,” Moily said, adding: “There is nothing wrong in what Balarkishnan said; he merely stated facts.”