AIADMK linked to smugglers

CHENNAI, August 12: Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has claimed that the two fugitive smugglers from Rameswaram -- Savakatti alias Anthony Adi...

CHENNAI, August 12: Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has claimed that the two fugitive smugglers from Rameswaram — Savakatti alias Anthony Adimai and Karuppiah — to whom Kumar, an LTTE cadre from Jaffna, had written a letter seeking some items (as alleged by AIADMK(J) general secretary J Jayalalitha) were in fact members of the AIADMK.

A communication to this effect was received by him from Rameswaram town Janata Dal president N Rathinam and confirmed by the `Q’ branch police.Talking to mediapersons at Secretariat on Monday, he said Rathinam, in his fax message to him, had stated that the cadres of all the parties in Rameswaram town knew well that Savakatti and Karuppiah (owner of the boat from whose driver a letter written by Kumar was seized by the Indian Coast Guard on June 24) were AIADMK members.

About Jayalalitha’s statement that the "hair oil", "lungis" and other such items sought by Kumar through the letter, were infact "code words" used by the LTTE for articles like "petrol", "diesel" and "medicines", Karunanidhi said: "I do not know about that. Only Jayalalitha is familiar with the LTTE’s code words."

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On Jayalalitha’s demand seeking a CBI probe into the "letter issue", the Chief Minister ridiculed her by stating that it was she who made a statement in the Assembly during the AIADMK regime criticising the CBI that they were not "heaven born".

In fact she refused to order a CBI investigation when the then Opposition parties demanded such probe into the incidents at `Vachathi’ (in Dharmapuri district where 18 tribal women were raped by the forest and police personnel), `Kodiyankulam’ (in Tuticorin district where police committed atrocities against dalits) and rape of Padmini, wife of a theft case accused, at Annamalainagar police station. It was due to the court’s order, the Vachathi and Kodiyankulam cases had been transferred to the CBI, he added.

Regarding Veerappan issue, he said the government did not receive any communication from the forest brigand after his Rs 5 crore ransom demand (to release the eight hostages) was rejected by both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments.

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