New Delhi/ Chennai:
Hours after DMK MP and M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi was arrested in the 2G spectrum allocation case, the Congress insisted that it would not have any impact on the UPA coalition.
"There is going to be absolutely no impact on the coalition due to the development," party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters.
However, when asked whether Kanimozhi's arrest would have an impact on the future relations between the DMK and the Congress, Karunanidhi avoided a direct reply and said "DMK will have good relations with all parties." He added that the party's General Council will meet "as and when necessary" and that he "cannot take a decision on my own on this."
But DMK sources have told NDTV that after Kanimozhi's arrest, the party is divided over whether to continue its alliance with the Congress. While some members of the party feel that Kanimozhi's arrest is Congress' political strategy, others feel that the alliance with Congress is needed, even more after DMK's poll drubbing.
On Friday afternoon, the Delhi court hearing the 2G case rejected Kanimozhi's bail application and ordered her immediate arrest. She was the sent to Tihar Jail.
The bail plea of Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharath Kumar was also rejected by Special CBI Judge OP Saini and he too was taken to jail.
Justice Saini said bail had been dismissed due to the magnitude of the crime and said given the seriousness of the allegations, he was unable to show any consideration to her being a woman. Kanimozhi's lawyer had argued that she should be given reprieve on the grounds that she was a woman and mother to a young child. Bail has not been granted to any of the accused in the case.
Kanimozhi has been chargesheeted by the CBI for allegedly conspiring with former Telecom Minister A Raja and accepting a Rs. 214-crore bribe via Kalaignar TV. Raja, her party MP and Dalit leader, has been in Tihar Jail since February for allegedly planning and executing the 2G scam when he was Telecom Minister in 2008. A company that he favoured allegedly sent him the massive bribe.
(Read: Who is Kanimozhi?)Kanimozhi and Kumar hold 20 per cent stake each in Kalaignar TV, while former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's wife and Kanimozhi's step mother Dayalu Ammal holds 60 per cent share.
(Watch: 'Kanimozhi belongs in jail', says Subramanian Swamy)Order on their bail plea had been deferred repeatedly. The last hearing on May 14 was a day after the results of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections were announced. The DMK, which ruled the state for the last five years, got a severe drubbing. It's thus come as a double blow to the DMK and Karunanidhi - Kanimozhi is largely believed to be his favourite child.
(Watch: Sad about Kanimozhi's arrest, says Karunanidhi)Kanimozhi had appeared before the court for the first time on May 6 complying with the summons issued to her after the second chargesheet filed by the CBI named her as an accused in the case. She was directed by the court to be personally present till her bail was decided upon. Kanimozhi was earlier granted exemption for May 12 and 13 as she and Sharath Kumar were to appear before the Income Tax office in Chennai.
In court, noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani argued for Kanimozhi and blamed Raja for the wrongs attributed to her - he said she had neither signed any documents nor handled affairs of the television company.
Kanimozhi had on one occasion remarked that "my misfortune is that I am Karunanidhi's daughter and an MP. I have 20 per cent shares in Kalaignar TV. Show me one overt act of mine which relates to the offence."
The CBI, on the other hand, opposed her bail saying her "complicity" in the alleged bribe given to Kalaignar TV in the 2G scam is clear. "The transactions are nothing but the transfer of bribe money to Kalaignar TV. Kumar (MD of the channel) alone cannot be held responsible when a family is having the controlling shares," Special Public Prosecutor UU Lalit had said.
(With PTI inputs)