Southern States - Karnataka   

CM plans legal action against four dailies

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE NOV. 25. The Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, is considering legal action against some persons and publishers of four newspapers for "disseminating false and unfounded reports alleging his involvement in the stamp paper scam wilfully, grossly misrepresenting facts in a malafide attempt to defame him, his Government, and other persons."

The nature of action would be based on legal advice, Mr. Krishna said at a press conference here today. He took exception to the news reports carrying the reported statement of the BJP spokesman, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, alleging his involvement in the scam along with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and other party leaders while demanding that the State Government allow a CBI investigation into the scam.

Mr. Krishna named Deccan Herald, Prajavani, Pioneer and Indian Express as the newspapers that had carried the articles, which "besmirched his reputation and cast a shadow over his character and integrity." The articles, he said, were far from truth and completely devoid of any substance.

As the Chief Minister, it was his duty to ensure that the accused in the scam were brought to book, he said. It was his Government which had taken the initiative to set up a special investigative unit, STAMPIT, to go into the case. The State police had arrested the main accused in the racket, Abdul Kareem Telgi, alias, Karim Lala, in Rajasthan.

Pointing out that the STAMPIT was headed by R. Srikumar, Additional Director-General of Police, who was known for his integrity and had earlier worked with the CBI, the Chief Minister said it was under his leadership that the inter-State ramifications of the case and the large-scale trade in fake stamp papers and judicial paper in States such as Maharashtra, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh had been established.

Besides giving the highest degree of autonomy to the STAMPIT, the constitution of a special court to try the cases underscored the unflinching resolve of the Government to take the matter to its logical conclusion, Mr. Krishna said.

The statement of Mr. Naqvi based on the remarks of Jayanth Tinaikar (who first exposed the racket) about his (Mr. Krishna) involvement in the case was thus preposterous and intended to lower his reputation in the public eye, he said.

The statement was entirely unfounded and malicious.

This was made obvious by the accolades given to the State police by the Union Home Secretary during a special meeting in July and also acknowledged by counsel for the CBI in an affidavit to the Bombay High Court in August.

The Chief Minister said the party which Mr. Naqvi represented and which headed the Central Government had been unresponsive to several requests made by the State for the finalisation of the matter.

In this connection, Mr. Krishna referred to his request to the Union Finance Minister in July last year seeking action to add additional security features to stamps and stamp papers to plug the loopholes. The State Home Minister in April last had requested the Union Finance Minister to plug the loopholes in the manufacture of stamps and stamp papers.

This too had gone unheeded. In contrast, the State Government had taken the lead in discontinuing the use of stamps and stamp papers as the best way to eliminate the scourge, he said.

The statement by Mr. Naqvi was aimed at gaining political mileage. It was a "crude" attempt on the part of the BJP to malign his reputation and bring disrepute to the Congress in view of the impending Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Delhi, he said. It was also shocking that Mr. Naqvi had attacked Ms. Gandhi, though there was no evidence for her involvement in the case, he added.

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