CHENNAI, Aug 2: In a stepped up offensive, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today accused the BJP government at the Centre of committing a ``mischievous fraud'' in the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the Jain Commission findings saying it had been done by completely ``distorting and manipulating the facts with an ulterior political motive to malign me and DMK.''A day after his party DMK alleged that reference to him in the ATR was done under the pressure of AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi in a hard-hitting statement to the press sought to contest the inferences drawn by the ATR on the Jain Commission's recommendations in the final report.The statement said inclusion of Karunanidhi's name in the ``role of suspects in the assassination'' was a ``fraudulent manipulation and wanton mischief unworthy of the powers that be.''``In sum, I only pity the `tall' BJP leaders who once claimed to have stood for some principles and had to stoop to this level because of the bad company they keep,'' hesaid.The chief minister said that in the final report, which runs into more than 2,000 pages covering various personalities and theories, direct reference to his name found mention in only one page and that too in one line under the topic where it was ``innocuously'' mentioned that SIT did not interrogate Chandraswamy, Seshan, Subramaniam Swamy, J Jayalalitha and P V Narasimha Rao.``In continuation of that it is added: M Karunanidhi was also not interrogated. On many matters, his interrogation was quite relevant.''Karunanidhi said ``this innocuous sentence was unfairly and improperly taken out of context and used by the ATR to suit their own purposes which is reprehensible.''He contended that as this sentence alone was ``scooped out of the entire paragraph mischievously,'' he was duty-bound to clarify he was examined and cross-examined by the Jain Commission on oath and in public for more than five days and unlike some of them he was forthright ``without withholding'' anything.``This referencethat on `many matters his interrogation was quite relevant' relates to my deposition and nothing more,'' he said.Detailing his theory of ``fraud'', the chief minister said while the reference to him in the Jain Commission report was made in the chapter on `Stand of the SIT on the theories beyond LTTE'', his name was ``cunningly'' included by the ATR under the heading ``role of suspects in the assassination''.``This is nothing but a fraudulent manipulation and wanton mischief unworthy of the powers that be,'' he said.Karunanidhi said in the entire final report there was no ``doubt'', ``suspicion'' or ``apprehension'' at all about him or his conduct whereas the ATR has used the plural ``misgivings'' against him ``which was nothing but a tissue of lies and distortion of facts''. He said the final report said there was no indictment in the interim report of any individual, organisation or party regarding any criminal conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi.
