HC names Raja as minister who tried to pressure judge

The woes don't seem to end for former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja. Nearly 18 months after a Madras high court judge made headlines by revealing that a union minister attempted to pressure him for a favourable order, a division bench on Tuesday named Raja, already embroiled in the 2G spectrum scam, as the one who in 2009 tried to influence the judge's decision in a case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
 
Disposing of a petition by a lawyer, the bench comprising  justices F M Ibrahim Khalifulla and M M Sundaresh also suspended from the bar a top lawyer, R K Chandramohan, who allegedly took Raja's message, and directed that he be suspended from the post of chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu.

It also said the Bar Council of India should initiate disciplinary action against him.
 
Citing a letter written by justice R Regupathi, who has since retired, to the then Madras high court chief justice H L Gokhale, the bench said Chandramohen had met the judge in his chamber and told him that a father-son duo facing a CBI case were "family friends" of then telecom minister Raja and that the minister wanted the judge to grant them anticipatory bail.
 
''I discouraged such conduct of Chandramohan and told him that the case would be disposed of in accordance with law if listed before me,'' justice Reghupati had said in his letter of 7 July 2009 to the then chief justice of the Madras high court.
 
Raja flatly denied on TV channels he had ever sought to influence a judge or that he had ever asked any lawyer to play go-between to help his friends get bail. But the revelations are sure to further embarrass his party, the DMK and make his defence in the 2G scam harder.
 
During the meeting on 12 June 2009, bar council chief R K Chandramohen had tried to hand over his mobile phone to Justice Regupathi saying, "The union minister is on the line and wants to talk to you." The judge declined to take the call.
 
The matter relates to a CBI probe into a fake marksheet scam involving medical and engineering college students and employees of the Pondicherry University. Kripa Sridhar and his father Krishnamoorthy, wanted in connection with the case, had approached the high court for anticipatory bail.
 
When the matter was taken up for hearing on 29 June 2009, Chandramohen had entered into a long argument with the judge and accused him of being pro-prosecution. An incensed justice Regupathi then recalled the exchange in his chambers in the open court and said he would be constrained to take up the matter with the president and the prime minister.
 
In his letter to the chief justice, justice Reghupati had observed that ''a counsel, who made an attempt to exert influence on the court by using the name of a cabinet minister, cannot be allowed to succeed in snatching an order in his favour by advancing threat.'' The then chief justice had told the media that the judge had sent a report to him making it clear that no union minister spoke to him directly.