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Tamil Nadu police book DMK’s A Raja for comments against Jayalalithaa
A senior official in the intelligence wing said that the DMK leader was booked under two sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The central crime branch (CCB) in Chennai booked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Parliament (MP) A Raja on Saturday for his remarks against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) late leader J Jayalalithaa based on a complaint filed by AIADMK members.
A senior official in the intelligence wing said that the DMK leader was booked under two sections of the Indian Penal Code - 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and 505 (1)(b) (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement or report that may lead to an offence against the state).
For more than a week, the two rival Dravidian parties have accused each other of corruption.
Chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami had accused Raja, a former union telecom minister, of indulging in the ‘2G scam’ in which the numbers were equivalent to the state budget. Raja had retaliated that while he was acquitted, it was late J Jayalalithaa who was convicted in the disproportionate assets (DA) case. Raja called for a press conference challenging the chief minister to a debate and read out portions from the Supreme Court’s 2017 order that convicted Jayalalithaa’s close aide VK Sasikala and her relatives V N Sudhakaran and J Ilavarasi in the DA case. While sentencing them, the court abated the charges against Jayalalithaa who died in December 2016. Sasikala is serving a four-year prison term in the case.
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The main points from the complaint lodged by the AIADMK state that Raja spread misinformation while quoting from the apex court order and that he undermined women and defamed the chief minister. When the DMK was asked for its response on the case, a senior leader said that they have not yet received any information or summons.
Raja was arrested in 2011 but a trial court acquitted him of all charges along with other accused, including DMK MP Kanimozhi in 2017. Following that, an appeal against the acquittals was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Delhi high court which will hear the case in January.
Raja held the telecom portfolio in the Congress-led government’s second term at the Centre. A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General had pegged a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer in the allocation of the 2G spectrum.
