Take care of my son

Said DMK leaderu00a0MK Kanimozhi during an emotional meeting with her father M Karunanidhi and mother Rajathi Ammal at the Tihar Jail in the Capital on Monday

It was a meeting overflowing with emotions. On Monday, DMK chief M Karunanidhi met his daughter and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi at the Tihar Jail in the Capital, where the latter is lodged in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. The reunion took place inside the superintendent's room of jail number 6 between 5.30 pm to 6.30 pm.


All together: DMK chief M Karunanidhi with party leader TR Baalu
(second from right) and Kanimozhi's husband Aravindan
(extreme right) leaves their hotel to meet his daughter and Rajya
Sabha MP Kanimozhi, who is in judicial custody at Tihar jail in
connection with 2G spectrum case, in New Delhi on Monday. PIC/Imtiyaz Khan

While Kanimozhi appeared calm and settled, her father, the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, broke into tears as soon as he entered the room to meet his daughter. Jail officials told MiD DAY that Kanimozhi had a long chat about her son Adhityan with her mother Rajathi Ammal, who was also present. Kanimozhi is believed to have asked her mother to take care of her son. Adhityan, who was expected to come too, didn't turn up. However, Kanimozhi's husband, G Aravindan was present.u00a0

At about 5.31 pm, Kanimozhi was frisked by a female official of jail number 6. She walked straight into the room located just next to the entrance gate of jail number 6. Kanimozhi had left the Patiala House Court complex at about 4.15 pm. Karunanidhi who had sought special permission to meet his daughter reached the main gate of director general, prisons office at about 5.35 pm.

Heavy security
Escorted by black cat commandos, his black Camry was then taken to jail number 6 via a secret route. At about 5.59 pm the main door of the jail was opened wide (usually only a small entrance within the main door is opened) for Karunanidhi who was the first to enter. He was, as usual, on a wheelchair. Neeraj Kumar, the director general, prisons, said, "We received a special request from one of the DMK MP's that former Tamil Nadu chief minister, Karunanidhi would like to come and meet his daughter as well as Sharad Kumar and A Raja. Since he is wheelchair-ridden, we were asked, if possible, to gather them at one point."u00a0DMK MP K P Ramalingam said: "It is purely a family visit and not a political one. That is why he never met any top UPA (United Progressive Alliance) leaders." From the jail, Karunanidhi directly left for the domestic section of the Indira Gandhi International Airport. "He has to catch an 8 pm flight for Chennai," a DMK leader said.

Sibling support
"Tomorrow (Tuesday) M K Stalin (Karunanidhi's son and Kanimozhi's half brother) will come to meet her (in the jail)," Ramalingam added. In an apparent expression of the DMK's disappointment over the arrest of Kanimozhi, none of the six ministers of the party attended the second anniversary function of the UPA-II government here Sunday. The DMK was represented only by former minister T R Baalu.

Police story
"There is no particular time in such special cases," said Tihar DG Neeraj Kumar, when asked about the meeting hours. Refuting allegations that there is any special treatment for Kanimozhi, Kumar said, "She sleeps on the floor." Commenting on the mobile phone which was confiscated from a 2G accused, Rajiv Aggarwal, Kumar said, "A Blackberry phone was found from his possession and we have ordered an inquiry into the matter. Anyone found conniving will face action. Three police officers have been suspended." Kumar also said that Aggarwal was shifted to jail number 4 from jail number 1 after this incident. "We will probably bar him from meeting anyone as a punishment for violating rules," Kumar added.

Reading between the lines?
On Sunday, Kanimozhi had visited library of the central jail and issued a literature book from there. "She came to the library and saw some books and took a literature book to read," jail sources stated. Kanimozhi was a student of Presentation Convent, Church Park in Chennai and later did her Masters in Economics in Ethiraj College for Women from the Madras University. Before her entry into politics, Kanimozhi was involved in various instances of journalism, such as sub editor for The Hindu, editor in charge of Kungumam (a Tamil weekly magazine belonging to the Sun group), and a features editor for a Singapore based Tamil newspaper called Tamil Murasu.

No bail for corporate honchos
The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected the bail pleas of five corporate executives, including the promoter of Etisalat DB, Sanjay Chandra, in connection with the 2G spectrum fraud case. The five corporate executives who were sent to 14-day judicial custody had approached the Delhi High Court after a special court hearing the case rejected bail applications, terming their pleas "meritless" in the face of 'serious allegations' and 'incriminating evidence' in a chargesheet filed by the CBI. They then moved an application seeking interim bail for one week so that they could move High Court against order, but the court rejected that plea too.
The order came on the bail applications of Swan Telecom Director Vinod Goenka, Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra, and three top officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) - Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara. The five executives, who were named in the CBI chargesheet, were not arrested during the probe.
The investigating agency had on April 15 sought the detention of five corporate executives chargesheeted by it for their alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, saying that they might abscond and impede the trial.