The Supreme Court has been moved for a direction to the Centre to cancel licence to Kalaignar Television.
Contending that the channel, owned by the family of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, was promoted with tainted funds got from the 2G spectrum scam, the petition has sought a direction to restrain it immediately from telecasting any programme.
A Chennai-based AIADMK lawyer, S. Muthuraj, has filed this application in the 2G case filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation.
A Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, however, did not take it up for hearing on Thursday. It is expected to come up on May 13.
The petitioner said the investigation by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate revealed that about Rs. 200 crore had flowed back and forth between a network of frontal companies among the beneficiaries of spectrum allocation and Kalaignar TV.
The ill-gotten money in the allocation of spectrum bandwidth flowed from the beneficiaries like Swan Technology to DB Realty, from DB Realty to Kusegaun Fruits and Vegetables to Cineyug Films, and finally to the Kalaignar TV Network. The money flow started immediately after seven days of the beginning of the spectrum allocations made by the former Union Minister, A. Raja. The “so-called repayment of loan also started immediately after the CBI started questioning Mr. Raja.”
The petitioner said Kalaignar TV being in the eye of the storm ought not to be permitted to function as it would scuttle the probe by airing misleading information about the scandal, probably hampering the investigation process.
Mr. Muthuraj pointed out that Mr. Karunanidhi's wife, Dayalu Ammal, holding 60 per cent shares in Kalaignar TV, had been cited as a witness in the 2G case, and two accused persons — his daughter and MP Kanimozhi, and managing director Sharad Kumar — were holding 20 per cent shares each.
The petitioner wants to be impleaded in the case.
