Raja's 2G scam-tainted aide Batcha found dead

Batcha’s wife Rahana Banu discovered his body hanging from a ceiling fan in the bedroom of their residence at Ellaiamman colony in Teynampet around 1 pm, the police said. She took the help of two drivers to rush Batcha by car to Apollo Hospital where he was pronounced ‘brought dead.’ An autopsy will be conducted at Royapetttah government hospital.

Batcha has been questioned several times by the CBI in connection with the 2G spectrum case. He was to travel to Delhi for another round of CBI interrogation, but by afternoon there was no immediate confirmation of his plans to leave for Delhi. There was talk here that Batcha could turn approver in the 2G case.

None had any clue in 37-year-old Batcha’s quiet residential neighbourhood until around 1 pm, when a car suddenly sped past with horns blaring “as though a VVIP was in an emergency,” said a neighbour. Others who rushed out of their homes found Batcha’s mother-in-law crying loudly in the portico.

A suicide note purportedly written by Batcha was later recovered from his house. The police recovered the hand-written note in Tamil whose contents were not fully known immediately, but citing parts of it, sources said Batcha had contemplated taking the extreme step as he could no longer bear the embarrassment caused to him and his family by the scam revelations.

Batcha is believed to have written he was under tremendous psychological pressure since the CBI began questioning him late last year. Besides, he is learnt to have expressed deep anguish over the way the media has “blown up” the case reportage and requested that his brother-in-law take care of his family after his death.

Around 5 pm, a grief-stricken Rahana filed a complaint at Teynampet police station, claiming her husband “could not cope with the embarrassment caused by the scam revelations,” a police officer said.

In December last year, Batcha was the first person to be questioned in Chennai by CBI sleuths after they and Income Tax officials raided his residence. This followed Raja’s resignation from the Union Cabinet on November 14.

Batcha was the promoter of a little known real estate and construction company, ‘Green House Promoters Private Ltd,’ in which Raja’s wife M A Parameshwari was a director. The CBI has searched Batcha’s bank lockers and probed other firms and associates. It summoned him to Delhi, tracking a payment trail from Swan Telecomto ‘Green House.’
Hailing from a small village Labbaikudikaadu in Peramblaur district, Batcha, a school dropout, came in contact with Raja who practiced law in the district court.