Pressure on Centre to act against Raja

NEW DELHI: The Congress-led government at the Centre is under pressure to respond to a joint memorandum submitted by about 200 MPs asking the prime minister to investigate Madras High Court Judge R Reghupathi���s allegations that a Union minister had tried to influence him in a fake marksheet case being investigated by the CBI.

Government cannot ignore the demands from a sizeable number of MPs, drawn from both the Houses of Parliament, a senior minister said, indicating that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could make a statement about looking into the matter soon. The source indicated that the PM, to whom the memorandum is addressed, was unhappy over the development.

Though the memorandum asks the PM to make a statement in Parliament on the issue, the government is unlikely to respond to the MPs��� demand in either of the Houses. With the Opposition pointing fingers at Union telecom minister A Raja, the Congress would have to keep the sensitivities of the DMK, the minister���s party, in mind before promising to investigate the case.

Mr Raja, a relatively junior leader of DMK, has managed to make to the council of minister at the Centre, while the longest-serving DMK minister, TR Baalu, was left out by the Dravidian party. This indicates the clout Mr Raja, who enjoys the backing of DMK chief M Karunanidhi���s daughter Kanimozhi, within the party.

The issue, in which Mr Reghupathi had claimed in court that a Union minister had tried to put pressure on him to
grant anticipatory bail to a doctor and his son accused in the Puducherry fake medical marksheet case, has generated political heat in Tamil Nadu. The Opposition AIADMK, which had gunned for Mr Raja even earlier over the 2G spectrum sale episode, has painted it as another instance of the DMK���s corrupt ways. It has demanded that Mr Raja be sacked for threatening Mr Reghupathi. The party has claimed that the accused in the case Dr Krishnamurthy and his son, Kiruba Sridhar, have close ties with the DMK leader.

The TN Opposition party has been at the helm of the campaign to get Opposition MPs to sign the petition addressed to the PM in the matter. The memorandum, which has been signed by members from BJP, Left parties, JD(U), Shiv Sena and others, asks the PM to also investigate the relation between the Union minister and the accused and the lawyer in the case. Sources said that the government could always fall back on the judge���s own statement that the minister had not spoken to him directly but the lawyer in the case had got the minister on the phone to facilitate the conversation.

However, government sources said this statement alone might not be reason enough for the Centre not to take action in a matter that nearly 200 MPs wanted probed. Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan has said that ���no minister had called the judge.��� However with the issue being raised in Parliament by Opposition MPs, the matter has refused to die down.