New Delhi, May 24: An emotional M Karunanidhi today met his daughter and DMK MP Kanimozhi, arrested in the 2G spectrum case, at the Tihar jail here and spent nearly an hour with her.
The 87-year-old DMK President drove to the jail at around 5.30 PM accompanied by his wife Rajathi Ammal, DMK Parlimentary Party leader T R Baalu and Kanimozhi’s husband Aravindan.
Karunanidhi, who arrived here this morning, met Kanimozhi at the jail Superintendent’s office and spent an hour with her.
It was not clear whether the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister met his trusted colleague A Raja, the former Telecom Minister, and Kalaingar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar, also in jail in connection with the scam.
Emotions ran high when Karunanidhi and Kanimozhi came eye to eye for the first time ever since she was arrested and sent to jail on Friday last.
It was a complete family affair as Karunanidhi and Rajathi spent time talking to their daughter in the jail. Rajathi is camping in New Delhi since Friday.
Several party MPs also accompanied Karunanidhi to the jail premises but they did not go inside the Superintendent’s office.
Billed as purely a “personal visit” by senior DMK leaders, Karunanidhi did not meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi during his day-long stay.
Karunanidhi meets Sonia Gandhi whenever he visits New Delhi. It has been the practice ever since the party aligned with Congress in 2004.
Earlier, with tears rolling down her eyes, Union Minister M K Alagiri’s wife Kanthi met Kanimozhi at a trial court and consoled her.
Kanthi, who arrived here this morning, went to the court along with her son Durai Dayanithi and others to the special CBI court at the Patiala House court complex and they spoke to her for a few minutes.
The DMK chief has been maintaining that his daughter was “innocent”.
Karunanidhi had on Saturday in a epistle to party cadres put up a spirited defence of Kanimozhi, saying her only crime was being a shareholder of Kalaignar TV.
“The arrest is a vendetta against DMK and my family ranging from Kanyakumari to Himalayas”, Karunanidhi said.
However, the DMK patriarch said he was confident of winning the “final war.”
Karunanidhi said it was he who advised Kanimozhi to be a shareholder of Kalaignar TV through the money received from Sun Television Network when his wife Dayalu Ammal sold her share for Rs 100 crore in October 2005.
Out of this money received from the network, Rs 22.5 crore was paid as tax while the “remaining was shared”, Karunanidhi said without elaborating.
“It was I who asked Kanimozhi to pay her share amount of Rs two crore to become a shareholder of Kalaignar TV. Though she was not inclined, she accepted my advice to be a shareholder of Kalaignar TV. This is the only crime she (Kanimozhi) committed”, Karunanidhi said.
“It is common for a shareholder to be a part of the company’s profits and losses. But they are not responsible for its day-to-day activities,” he had said.
–PTI–