Captain targets Jaffer Sait in House

Opposition leader in the Tamil Nadu assembly Vijaykanth on Friday charged former state intelligence chief Jaffer Sait with tapping phones of political leaders during the previous DMK regime and also slammed DMK president M Karunanidhi for raking up the religious card when the new government suspended the officer for his alleged role in the land allotment scam.

In a 30-minute speech read out from a prepared script with his characteristic flamboyance during the budget debate in the assembly, the DMDK founder-president said generally only the phones of terrorists are tapped for security reasons, but Sait had taken it up as "his duty" to monitor the calls of opposition leaders and some important persons thereby behaving like a "Kalaignar`s man" and "committing infringement of freedom of speech."

Joining issue with DMK patriarch who had last week alleged that the Jayalalithaa government had initiated "vindictive action" against a "true and loyal" officer, Vijaykanth, who at times struck a pose, remarked: "when the government acted on such a dishonest officer, Karunanidhi plays the muslim card."