New Delhi:
A Raja, now in jail for allegedly masterminding India's biggest scam, was once a favourite of his party leader, M Karunanidhi. Since his arrest in February, Mr Karunanidhi has said on more than one occasion that he does not believe Mr Raja is guilty and that his party will stand by him till it's proven that he sold licenses and spectrum at throwaway prices as Telecom Minister in 2008 to companies who reciprocated with kickbacks.
Mr Raja, a Dalit leader from Tamil Nadu, is acknowledged as a deliverer of votes. His arrest, months before Tamil Nadu voted for its next government, presented a political conundrum for his party which decided that abandoning him could boomerang with the considerable Dalit population in the state.
The results of the Tamil Nadu election will be known on May 13. But Mr Raja is now an isolated man in his own party. Mr Karunanidhi's daughter, Kanimozhi, has been chargesheeted for conspiring along with Mr Raja to accept a bribe for 214 crores from Swan Telecom - an alleged beneficiary of Mr Raja's swindle. Kanimozhi applied for bail in Delhi today. She was present in court along with several MPs from the DMK, one of who fainted. Mr Raja was in the same special court that's been set up to try the 2G scam. He was dressed, as usual, in a crisp white linen shirt. Most of the DMK politicians present in court as a show of support for Kanimozhi did not engage with Mr Raja.
Kanimozhi's lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, said repeatedly while arguing for her right to bail, that "the minister (Raja) did it." A DMK leader, TKS Elangovan, said later that Mr Raja is not being abandoned by his party. "He is a lawyer...he is defending Kanimozhi and this is legal strategy...he is not a party spokesperson," he said in reference to Mr Jethmalani's statements.
The money from Swan was channelled through a series of companies associated with Swan's owners and was deposited with Kalaignar TV, a Chennai channel owned partly by Kanimozhi. Mr Jethmalani argued today that she does not participate in the channel's management, and that it's the channel's Managing Director who should be held responsible for any financial felonies.
Sharath Kumar, Kalaignar's MD, has also been chargesheeted by the CBI for conspiracy and was in court today.
So far, the CBI has said that it does not believe that Kanimozhi was a passive owner. It has evidence of how she lobbied for broadcasting permits with the government in Delhi. The CBI has also laid considerable stress on phone conversations that reveal Kanimozhi lobbying hard for Mr Raja to be re-named Telecom Minister when the UPA coalition returned to power for a second time in May 2009.