Don't know what is 2G, says DMK chief Karunanidhi's wife while testifying at home

Chennai: Former Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi's home in Chennai became a makeshift courtroom today as the magistrate, CBI officers and prosecutors along with defence lawyers all landed up for the testimony of the politician's second wife, Dayalu Ammal.

84-year old Dayalu Ammal, who had tried to avoid the deposition citing memory loss, went back on her statement to the CBI  on the 2G case, which means that the agency can declare her a hostile witness.

Sources say the matriarch, speaking in Tamil, said she did not recall anything.

"I know nothing about 2G or CBI," she reportedly testified. She denied giving any statement to the CBI in the past.

Sources say Dayalu Ammal also claimed she knew nothing about Kalaignar TV, the DMK's mouthpiece of which she is part owner along with her step-daughter Kanimozhi.

The CBI says the channel received kickbacks worth Rs 214 crore for A Raja, who as Telecom Minister in 2008 gave out-of-turn licenses with free second-wave or 2G airwaves to ineligible companies.

Both Dayalu Ammal and Kanimozhi have said that they played no role in the management of the channel. Kanimozhi was released on bail in November 2011 after spending more than six months in jail.

The national auditor has said that the telecom scam cost the country upto 1.76 lakh crores.

The DMK quit the Prime Minister's coalition government in March 2013, accusing India of failing to hold Sri Lanka accountable for alleged war crimes by its defence forces against the country's Tamils in the final months of the island's civil war.

Dayalu Ammal has issued a statement claiming that she had told the magistrate she was honest and had done nothing illegal, and neither had anyone else in her family.