There was a plot to kill me: Karunanidhi

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 15. In yet another twist to the episode of his arrest on June 30, the DMK president and former Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, today alleged there was ``even a plot to kill me under the pretext of taking me to the Vellore prison.''

Hinting that the DMK expected the Centre to firmly deal with the ``police excesses'' that day, Mr. Karunanidhi told reporters here that if the BJP-led NDA Government ``failed to take serious note'' of the goings-on in Tamil Nadu in the post-arrest scenario, ``we will have to rethink our position.'' He, however, did not elaborate on this.

But the DMK is obviously waiting for the Agra summit, with which the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, is preoccupied, to get over. He indicated as much in reply to a query on the PMK's desire to rejoin the NDA at the Centre.

After his judicial remand, Mr. Karunanidhi said, while he was made to wait in the jailer's room in the Central Prison here till 3 p.m. on June 30, ``their (authorities) insistence'' on taking him to the Vellore prison was indicative of ``something fishy.'' But he resisted his shifting, threatening a hunger-strike.

He later ``even heard of a plot to finish him off'' by allegedly engineering a road accident while taking him in a car to Vellore, Mr. Karunanidhi said. Until he was in ``police custody'' that day, the focus of their talks was only on taking him to Vellore. Even government doctors who examined him initially had been ``pressured'' by higher-ups to say that ``he (Karunanidhi) is fit for the journey,'' the DMK leader alleged, adding, all this pointed to an ``attempt to kill me.''

On the AIADMK's executive yesterday asking the Centre to sack the two DMK Union Ministers - Mr. Murasoli Maran and Mr. T. R. Baalu - for their ``behaviour'' during Mr. Karunanidhi's arrest, he said the Ministers had done ``nothing wrong.''

The Union Ministers who were senior DMK functionaries as well only wanted to ensure that ``he was safe'' given his poor health condition, Mr. Karunanidhi said, reiterating that the apex court's guidelines on the mode of arrest were flouted.

Asserting that there was nothing wrong in the two Ministers accompanying their frail leader while he was being taken for remand, Mr. Karunanidhi asked whether functionaries of the CPI(M), which had assailed the two DMK Ministers, would not come out to ``protect their leader if a similar thing happened to Mr. Jyothi Basu.''

Refuting the Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa's charge that he was running away from the Justice Raman Commission probing the arrest episode, Mr. Karunanidhi said any political party was free to boycott an enquiry commission.

When the DMK regime appointed the Justice Gokulakrishnan commission to probe the Coimbatore serial blasts in 1998, Mr. Jayalalithaa said her party was boycotting the panel as it had no faith in the probe, he said.

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Section  : Southern States
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