K Shanmuganathan, personal assistant to DMK chief and former Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi has been summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the 2G Spectrum case in which Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter by his third wife, is one of the accused.
A source close to Shanmuganathan said he was asked by the New Delhi office of the CBI to make himself available for a voice test to check the authenticity of a telephonic conversation featuring him. “Shanmuganathan told the CBI officer who contacted him over phone to send the details by post so that he can do the needful,” said the source.
The fact that the premier investigating agency has approached Shanmuganathan, who has been a close aide of Karunanidhi for the last five decades is an indication that the probe has reached at the doorsteps of the Karunanidhi clan. Shanmuganathan, a former police writer, specialised in noting down political speeches of Opposition leaders joined Karunanidhi in 1967 when the latter became a Minister in the Annadurai Cabinet. He wields enormous influence in the family and is at ease with all the wives of Karunanidhi.
The reported telephonic conversation features Shanmuganathan, popularly known as Man Friday to Karunanidhi. The conversation took place during January-March 2011when Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. The telephonic conversation between Shanmuganathan, the then ADGP (Intelligence) Jaffar Sait, Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar (managing director of Karunanidhi’s family owned Kalaignar TV) focussed on how to arm twist the police and CBI authorities to save Kanimozhi from the Rs 214 crore 2G Spectrum pay-off scam.
Those days DMK was in power both in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre and Kanimozhi was facing CBI’s arrest in 2G money trail. The conversations were about how to scuttle the CBI probe by inducing officers and manipulating the company documents of Kalaiganr TV to save Kanimozhi from the CBI’s net.