BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: DMK supremo K Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi and the MD & CEO of Kalaignar TV, Sharad Kumar, have been arrested in the 2G spectrum scam case. The arrest followed soon after a special CBI court rejected their bail pleas on Friday. The DMK MP is sent to Tihar Jail, where the other accused are also lodged.
Kanimozhi, however, argued in the court for leniency and stated that she was not aware of what’s happening at the TV channel as she was just a 20 per cent stakeholder in the company. She had also blamed the management of the channel, while the CBI accuses her of being the ‘brain’ behind the channel.
CBI had named Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar as co-conspirators in its April 25 supplementary chargesheet, after it tracked the illegal money trail of Rs 214 crore. The 2G spectrum scam relates to irregularities in the allocation of airwaves to telcos which caused huge losses to the exchequer.
Kanimozhi had requested for bail after being named a conspirator in the 2G scam case. The CBI had found that Kalaignar TV – the channel started by the Karunanidhi family after its fallout with the Maran brothers – had received easy loans indirectly from the owners of one of the beneficiaries of the alleged 2G scam – Swan Telecom.
Kanimozhi’s fellow DMK leader A Raja and Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of Reliance ADA Group – Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair – had been sent to Tihar jail a month ago.
Opposition BJP has meanwhile welcomed the arrest.