I owe no explanation to Jaya: Krishna

NEW DELHI: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna on Tuesday said, he "owed no explanation" to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on the transfer of a senior IG in charge of a Special Task Force to hunt forest brigand Veerappan.
"Well, I don''t owe an explanation to her. Do I? Krishna, who is meeting his Tamil Nadu counterpart on Tuesday evening, told reporters here reacting to her allegation that shifting of IG Kempiah by the Karnataka government had encouraged Veerappan to kidnap former Karnataka Minister H Nagappa on Sunday.
Asked whether the sandalwood smuggler has made any demands in the tape he sent after the kidnap, Krishna said "no".
"There is nothing new. It was a one minute message. It only repeats what he had said earlier", he said without elaborating.
In reply to whether there was any lack of cooperation between the two states on nabbing Veerappan, he said there was always lack of cooperation and that was the reason for setting up the Joint Special Task Force.
He said during his meeting with Jayalalithaa, he would discuss how to strengthen the task force and greater cooperation between the two states.