JOIN USCBI seizes incriminating documents
The massive swoop down by CBI men on the premises of several former DMK ministers’ aides and associates, included the office of Tamil Maiyam, a non-profit organisation led by Rev Jegath Gaspar Raj, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s daughter and DMK MP Kanimozhi is also associated with it.
As the CBI launched search and seizure operations in Chennai and Perambalur in the houses of a key Raja associate, Sadhick Batcha and other close relatives of the former telecom minister, it threw up a much wider network from the cues CBI picked up from Raja’s dairies last week. Batcha heads the real estate firm Green House Promoters Private Ltd.
Official sources are tight-lipped regarding the details of the operation as the raids that began around 7.30 am on Wednesday continued at the time of filing this report.
The CBI’s crack-down included the apartment of senior Tamil journalist A Kamaraj, Joint Editor of the Tamil bi-weekly “Nakkeeran” in Besant Nagar in South Chennai, the local office of corporate lobbyist Nira Radia’s Vaishnavi Communications in the up-market Khader Nawaz Khan road here, in which the scribe’s wife Jayasudha is an employee, and the premises of a few others linked to Green House Promoters, sources said.
Allegations
The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating legal violations, including provisions under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, illegal financial transactions, flow-out and flow-in of large sums of money that in turn allegedly found their way into some shell companies managed by Raja’s associates, mainly in housing and real estate development. The CBI also raided premises of one Syed Salaluddin, who represents a large Gulf-based group, ETA Star, that has bagged several civil contracts and health insurance in Tamil Nadu in recent years.
The ETA Star Group is believed to have picked up a notable stake in Swan Telecom, one of the beneficiaries of the under-valued 2G spectrum licences. The entity’s name was changed in June 2009 as the Abhu Dhabi-based joint venture Etisalt-DB. Swan in turn was suspected to be in the process of investing huge sums of money in Green House Promoters.
Though no official word was forthcoming till 4 pm on Wednesday, sources said the other premises raided included that of recent start-up firms allegedly fronting for Raja and his associates. The names mentioned are Eqaas Estates, Kovai Shelters Promoters and Genex Exim Ventures. The ED is also probing these companies, sources pointed out.
Raja’s elder sister Saroja’s house near Tiruchirappalli, his elder brother Ramachandran’s house there, the staff quarters of a professor at Anna University in Chennai, and the residence of one Aiklan, both close to Raja, were also searched.
Significantly, the premises of Rathinam, the auditor of Kanimozhi’s mother Rajathi Ammal, the residence of Raja’s chartered accountant here and the houses of other associates of the former minister and Batcha in Tiruchirappalli and Perambalur also came under the CBI scanner.
However, an unexpected climax was the searches at Tamil Maiyam. The CBI grilled Rev Jegath till the evening at their first floor office inside Santhome Communications Centre on Luz Church Road after downing its shutters. That premise also houses the office of Goodwill Communications.
Started in July 2002 as a non-profit organisation to promote Tamil art and culture, Tamil Maiyam has been a catalytic centre for organising the state’s biggest folk-arts festival in the city, Chennai Sangamam, in the last four years, a brain-child of Kanimozhi.
Rev Jegath had teamed up with her to organise this festival, while the priest’s penchant for Tamil nationalism and his pro-LTTE sympathies are widely known. In her first reaction, Kanimozhi told a television channel this afternoon that the CBI raids are “unfair”, as it targeted people close to her family.