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N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai
Pondicherry Chief Justice G M Akbar Ali on Friday acquitted state Assembly Speaker D Ramachandran, former chief minister V Vaithilingam, and seven others in the Rs 995,000 bribery case, aimed at effecting the defection of then Tamil Maanila Congress legislator K Kandaswamy.
"The Central Bureau of Investigation has failed to prove the charge," the judge said. The local All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam unit chief Natarajan was also acquitted.
The CBI, in its charge sheet, said the nine had bribed Kandaswamy in a bid to topple the DMK-TMC coalition government of then Chief Minister R V Janakiraman.
Kandaswamy had caused a sensation by taking up the issue in the Territorial Assembly only hours after he said those close to Ramachandran, a former chief minister who was then in the AIADMK, and Vaithilingam, had bribed him. He deposited the money with then Assembly Speaker V M C Sivakumar.
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