Karunanidhi in Delhi to meet daughter Kanimozhi

New Delhi, May 23: DMK President M Karunanidhi arrived here today (may 23) to meet his daughter Kanimozhi, who is in jail in connection with the 2G Spectrum case, but may not call on Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

The former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister is expected to visit Kanimozhi in Tihar Jail this evening. He may also meet former Telecom Minister A Raja and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, who are also lodged in the jail.

Asked whether he would meet Gandhi, he had yesterday said: "I don't think there will be an opportunity."

Karunanidhi meets Sonia Gandhi whenever he visits New Delhi. It has been the practice ever since the party aligned with Congress in 2004.

Kanimozhi is in Tihar jail since Friday on bribery charges. The DMK chief's wife Rajathi Ammal had met Kanimozhi on Saturday at the court.

The DMK chief had on Saturday in a epistle to party cadres put up a spirited defence of Kanimozhi, saying her only crime was being a shareholder of Kalaignar TV.

"The arrest is a vendetta against DMK and my family ranging from Kanyakumari to Himalayas", Karunanidhi said. However, the DMK patriarch said he was confident of winning the "final war."

Karunanidhi said it was he who advised Kanimozhi to be a shareholder of Kalaignar TV through the money received from Sun Television Network when his wife Dayaluammal sold her share for Rs 100 crore in October 2005.

Out of this money received from the network, Rs 22.5 crore was paid as tax while the "remaining was shared", Karunanidhi said without elaborating.

"It was I who asked Kanimozhi to pay her share amount of Rs two crore to become a shareholder of Kalaignar TV. Though she was not inclined, she accepted my advice to be a shareholder of Kalaignar TV. This is the only crime she (Kanimozhi) committed", Karunanidhi said.

"It is common for a shareholder to be a part of the company's profits and losses. But they are not responsible for its day-to-day activities," he had said.

PTI