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Special courts issue being politicised: Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today accused Union Law Minister M Thambidurai of politicising the special courts issue involving former chief minister and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha and some of her erstwhile cabinet colleagues.

Talking to journalists in Madras, he said the state home secretary had replied a letter from the Union department of personnel regarding the special courts issue and that he had nothing more to add. He declined to say whether the reply contained the details and clarifications sought by the Centre.

He was asked about Thambidurai's threat to invoke Article 355 (which is invoked when the state government is not functioning in accordance with the Constitution) if the state government did not part with the details pertaining to the allocation of the corruption cases against Jayalalitha and the others. Karunanidhi said he did not want to reply to such "outbursts".

When pointed out that the Union law minister had gone on record saying that the state government had declined to give the details, he said his government never stated that it would not part with the details, not had it adopted a confrontationist attitude towards the Centre.

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