New Delhi:
For the DMK, this is the first piece of good news in a long time.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has decided it will not oppose the request for bail made by Kanimozhi, a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, and the daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi. "If that is true, I am very, very happy", said the DMK chief, who has visited Kanimozhi in jail a few times, and broken down on those occasions.
A Delhi court is scheduled to hear Kanimozhi's case for bail on October 17. Her lawyers have said that because she is a woman and needs to tend to her young son, she should be allowed to return home.
She was arrested in May in connection with the telecom scam, which was allegedly masterminded by another DMK leader, A Raja, when he was Telecom Minister in 2008. Mr Raja is accused of selling licenses for mobile networks at throwaway prices to companies who were ineligible. One of them - Swan Telecom - allegedly sent him a 214-crore kickback through a maze of companies. The money was finally deposited with Kalaignar TV, a local channel in Chennai owned partly by Kanimozhi and her stepmother.
Kanimozhi has said that though she was a Director of the firm, she was not involved with its financial transactions.
The management of the channel has said that the money received from Swan was a loan which was returned with interest.
The arrest of Kanimozhi has severely strained the political collaboration between Mr Karunanidhi and the Congress. At the Centre, the DMK is a senior partner in the UPA coalition with 18 Lok Sabha MPs. In addition to Kanimozhi and Mr Raja who was arrested in February, a third DMK stalwart, Dayanidhi Maran, has been ringed by the telecom scam. The CBI today registered a case against Mr Maran for criminal conspiracy for misusing his office from 2004 to 2007 when he was Telecom Minister (Mr Raja replaced him).