Chennai: While Madras High Court Judge R. Reghupathi has refused to name the minister who allegedly threatened and pressurised him, Tamil Nadu's Leader of Opposition J. Jayalalitha Thursday said Minister for IT and Communication A. Raja was the culprit.

"Though the honourable judge refrained from naming the union minister, it does not require any super-human intelligence to conclude that it was none other than the telecom scam-tainted A. Raja," the AIADMK general secretary said in a staement.

She noted that this was the first time in India that a sitting high court judge had accused a union minister of threatening him.

"If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continues to turn a Nelson's eye to the undesirable and illegal activities of his cabinet colleague from the DMK party, he would be doing the nation and democracy a tremendous disservice," Jayalalitha said.

On June 30, Justice Reghupathi stunned the court while hearing an anticipatory bail petition of S. Kiruba Shridhar, a student in a private medical college of Puducherry, and his father C. Krishnamurthy, stating that a union minister had asked him to give bail to the two accused.

The judge had threatened to complain to the central government and the prime minister about the union minister's interference but he has so far not named the minister.

Shridhar, who was failing in his exams for the past two years, joined hands with his father and allegedly changed his answer-sheet to get extra marks in the subject. Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found the father-son duo to be involved in forging marksheets.

The judge referred the case to Chief Justice H.L. Gokhale, requesting him to post the matter before another bench.

According to Jayalalitha, the accused hail from Perambalur, the native district of Raja.

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