Minister trying to influence judge: Moily promises action

Union law minister Moodbidri Veerappa Moily said on Tuesday that the government is seized of the revelation by justice R Regupathy of the Madras High Court that a minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet had tried to pressure him to grant pre-arrest bail to a third-year student of a private medical college in Puducherry and his father.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has accused the father-son duo of C Krishnamurthy and S Kiruba Shridhar of forging the latter's answer sheet.

Moily said the government would take requisite action. "Let me verify the case first," he said. "It is only through the media that I came to know this particular thing. Let me see what has happened."

Moily, however, felt that the law ministry should not interfere in such matters. "Normally, we don't react to these matters. What happens in court or what remarks are made by a high court judge, these are matters to be looked into by law officers or the respective judiciary," he said.

Though Regupathy did not reveal the name of the minister, speculation is rife that a minister from the DMK, who was part of Manmohan Singh's earlier cabinet, might have issued the threat.

Regupathy demanded an unconditional apology, failing which he would narrate the entire episode in his order.