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TMC flays PMO for calling Jaya's corruption cases a 'witch-hunt'

The Tamil Maanila Congress has sharply criticised, as "political interference in the judiciary", the Prime Minister's Office's statement that the corruption cases pending before special judges against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary J Jayalalitha were part of a witch-hunt by the DMK regime in Tamil Nadu.

A resolution passed by the TMC's political affairs committee, which met at Sathyamurthy Bhavan, the party headquarters in Madras, charged the Centre with attempting to bail out Jayalalitha from the corruption cases pending against her and her party colleagues.

The resolution said the Centre's latest stand before the Supreme Court that it (the Centre) had the powers to transfer cases pending before the special judges, amounted to political interference in judicial administration. "This shows that the BJP-led government is ready to go to any extent to cling on to power," it added.

The resolution pointed out that the Madras high court and the apex court had stated that there was prima facie evidence against the accused in the corruption cases.

Those who attended the meeting included party president G K Moopanar, former Union ministers P Chidambaram, M Arunachalam, Dhanushkodi R Adityan, Jayanthi Natarajan and S R Balasubramanian and leader of the opposition in the state assembly S Balakrishnan.

UNI

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