Jayalalithaa demands sacking of Telecom Minister Raja from Union Cabinet

Chennai, Mar 20 : All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagam (AIADMK) general secretary and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Union Telecom Minister A Raja.

Jayalalithaa's demand came after the Supreme Court declined to interfere in Delhi High Court's findings against him in the 2G spectrum allocation.

On March 12, the apex court had declined to interfere with the adverse findings of the Delhi High Court against DoT and Raja in the issue.

'We make it clear that the findings reached by the High Court is not interfered with in this particular case,' the Supreme Court said.

In a statement issued here, Jayalalithaa said: 'The interests of justice will be served only if Raja is removed from his post as Union Minister. Now that he has the Supreme Court's order to back him, the Prime Minister should not hesitate further to sack Raja.'

Jayalalithaa said in the statement that sacking of Raja would give credence to Singh's claim that he is a Prime Minister with 'zero intolerance' for corrupt practices.

Elaborating the actions leading to the case filed by the STel, a telecom firm, Jayalalithaa said the company had approached the court following the Department of Telecom (DoT) arbitrarily advancing the cut-off dates for 2G allocation.