Refuting Justice Markandey Katju’s charge that he had favoured Ashok Kumar’s extension in the Madras High Court because the late judge had once granted him bail, DMK president M. Karuananidhi said on Thursday that in fact, he had remanded him in judicial custody.
Furthermore, Mr. Karunanidhi said, he did not seek bail (after he was arrested by an earlier Jayalalitha regime in the flyover scam case) as he wanted to be in jail till he proved his innocence.
In a statement here, he said that after his arrest on the midnight of June 29, 2001, he was taken to the residence of Ashok Kumar, who asked the police whether they had sent the first information report to the court. “The police had not done that, and they also did not have adequate documents for my arrest. These issues were raised by my advocate R. Shanmugasundaram. Despite his objection, Ashok Kumar remanded me in judicial custody,” Mr. Karunanidhi said.
To Mr. Katju’s another poser whether he was ready to reveal his assets, Mr. Karunanidhi said that though he was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five times and had penned scripts and screenplay for over 70 films, all he had was his Gopalapuram residence.
