Congress leader and former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely in filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case.
“Those people who are asking Karnataka government to appeal, I want to remind that the original petitioners are BJP leaders. Why are they using Karnataka government to shoot,” Mr. Ramesh told presspersons at the party office here.
The Karnataka High Court gave a clean chit to the AIADMK chief and three others, clearing them of “all charges” in the case on May 11.
The BJP leaders, including Subramanian Swamy, have to make their stance clear on the issue. “What is Mr. Modi’s view on this? I would like to know. What does Mr. Jaitley have to say on this?” he said.
The Congress leader said “primary petitioners in this case must come out very clearly and the internal contradictions in the BJP must be resolved”. What does Modi have to say about this? Mr. Modi and Mr. Jaitley have a view on everything under the sun, but on this they are quiet, why?,” he asked, reminding that AIADMK has eleven MPs in Rajya Sabha where BJP lacks majority.
Mr. Ramesh said Karnataka is the sole prosecuting agency in the case, and has the authority to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
The Karnataka government has not yet decided on the issue, even as Special Public Prosecutor B.V. Acharya has advised filing an appeal. The Karnataka government has three months time to decide on the issue of appeal.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah maintained that the State government has got nothing to do with either DMK or AIADMK and it will take a “legal decision” on filing the appeal in the Supreme Court.
