The AIADMK yesterday narrowed the target of its charge that a newspaper group bribed persons close to the Prime Minister to get MK Bezboruah transferred from the enforcement directorate. It focused on a person who used to be in the prime minister's office.
BJP President Kushabhau Thakre, however, rejected the renewed allegation, contained in a letter to the prime minister's office, and dared her to prove the allegation if she wanted a CBI inquiry.
The party did not deny that some party leaders had met representatives of the newspaper group which Jayalalitha had apparently referred to.
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The AIADMK's reply to the letter to Jayalalitha from Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, was signed by one of the junior-most party functionaries to reply. Mishra's letter had asked Jayalalitha to substantiate her charges.
He alleged in his reply that senior personnel of a newspaper group had frequent interactions with the person who had till recently been part of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "Such close interaction with those facing serious charges, which are under investigation, naturally leads to adverse inferences," party office secretary P Mahalinagam said in the letter.
He alleged that an individual very close to the prime minister has also had meetings with the group's corporate director.
"Many of the discussions with both these individuals related to cases against the group," he said and asked Mishra to get "independently confirmed the frequent contacts the two had with those close to the group and advise them against doing so."
"The group has openly been lobbying both for and against selected officers, including Bezboruah. Representatives of the group have several times met with present and former ministers and senior civil servants for discussions about their cases, including many meetings with the then revenue secretary. I do not want to name the present ministers who have been in close contact with them as this will be revealed in an inquiry, should one be ordered', he said.
The letter also pointed out that Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had himself made "serious allegations," when he was in opposition against the same newspaper group, which Jayalalitha now accused.
Vajpayee had written to then Prime Minister IK Gujral, levelling the charges against the newspaper group, Mahalingam pointed out. This letter could be procured from the files in the PMO, he said. Vajpayee had "good reason" then to write such a letter as Jayalalitha had now done, he added.
Mahalingam demanded a CBI inquiry into the "furious lobbying" that preceded the transfer of Bezboruah. Such an inquiry would reveal the motives behind the shifting of an upright officer before completion of his term.
Thakre dismissed the AIADMK's reply and said the contents of the letter clarified that Jayalalitha did have prove. Her demand for a CBI inquiry also indicated the same, he said.
On AIADMK's reference to the talks between a person in the PMO and newspaper representatives, Thakre said, "people meet each other in an open and democratic country. This does not mean there is something clandestine between them." To say it was clandestine would be wrong, he added.
"A person can't be hanged on mere allegation. There is the law of the land," Thakre said, adding that she would have to give proof of her allegation. "We don't want to jump to conclusions. We will have to see if there is a prima facie case in the allegation," he said.
BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu said that there was no outside involvement in the recent transfers, which he described as the on done purely on administrative grounds.