Jaya's charge against arch rival Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa today said people were "suspicious" of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's "role" in the appointment of former telecom secretary P J Thomas as CVC and claimed of having 'circumstantial evidence'.

In a statement here, Jayalalithaa referred to the Supreme Court questioning the appointment of Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner, who is an accused in a criminal case.

Thomas' name figures in the charge sheet filed in a vigilance court in Kerala in the palmolein import case which is due to come up. He was till recently secretary in the telecom ministry which is at the centre of the 2G spectrum scam.

"In this situation, people are now suspicious of Karunanidhi's role in this also (Thomas' appointment as CVC) and I would like to remind Karunanidhi that there is circumstantial evidence for this," she said without elaborating.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia had on Monday questioned Thomas' appointment as CVC following a pending criminal case against him and had noted that he himself will feel embarrassed as in every case the CBI will be dealing with him.

Referring to former IT and Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran writing a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on spectrum pricing during his tenure as minister, Jayalalithaa alleged that this showed DMK was "hell bent" on fixing 2G spectrum prices.