Bangalore, February 9
The BJP’s desire to warm up to the AIADMK seems to have cost the Karnataka Advocate General BV Acharya his job. Acharya, also special public prosecutor (SPP) in the disproportionate assets case against the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, told this reporter that he quit the AG’s post yesterday after being asked by the BJP government in the state to choose either of the two positions — Advocate General of Karnataka or the SPP in the disproportionate assets against Jayalalithaa.

“Any day I shall prefer the job of special public prosecutor in the disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa. The case has been assigned to me by the Chief Justice of the High Court following directions from the Supreme Court”, Acharya said.

Acharya, 78, said, “The state government, following directions from the Central leadership, has been asking me to quit the job of special public prosecutor in the Jayalalithaa case”.

While the DMK, the AIDMK’s main rival in Tamil Nadu, continues to remain a member of the Congress-led UPA, the AIADMK is not a part of the opposition NDA led by the BJP. The BJP is apparently keen to induct the AIADMK in its fold before the next Lok Sabha elections.

Having clung to the post of the SPP, Acharya, though, has frustrated Jayalalithaa’s design if she was really plotting for his removal from the post of SPP.

Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, however, today claimed that the state government did not put pressure on Acharya to resign as SPP. He said there was a PIL in the High Court challenging Acharya holding two posts. The government did not want to face any embarrassment on the issue and so he asked Acharya to choose one post.

Acharya stuck to the position that he resigned as AG after state government pressured him to quit as SPP in the case against Jayalalitha. He said there was no legal bar on an AG holding the post of an SPP. Jayalalithaa is facing charges of amassing over Rs 66 core between 1991 and 1996 during her first tenure as Chief Minister. The case was shifted to Bangalore by the Supreme Court on a petition by DMK general secretary K Anabalgan during the previous AIADMK regime in Tamil Nadu. Back in 1997 (when the DMK was in power) the Tamil Nadu government completed investigations in the case. “Now trial is going on in the special court in Bangalore”, Acharya said.