ED takes major action against former Union Minister A Raja; agency seizes Benami property
Former corrupt Telecom Minister A Raja is caught by Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his corruption as Environment Minister. The ED has provisionally attached 45 acres of land in the Coimbatore district worth Rs.55 crore held in the name of a Benami company of A Raja. ED case was registered after CBI registered a case against Raja for disproportionate assets case in 2015.
The ED found that Raja during his tenure in Environment Ministry (2004-2007) took a bribe from the biggest real estate company Unitech for giving environment clearance. The bribe was parked (later used to purchase 45 acres in Coimbatore) in a newly floated company Kovai Shelters. This Kovai Shelters Pvt Limited’s Directors were Raja’s nephews and nieces and the Managing Director was Raja’s close friend Dr. C Krishnamoorthy.
Raja’s legal office in home town Peramballur was working at Krishnamoorthy’s building in the early 90s. Then Union Minister Raja was caught for trying to call Madras High Court Judge Justice Raghupathy in 2009 for bail (in a murder case) for Krishnamoorthy and his son.
”The properties 45 acres of land in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, worth Rs.55 crore have been purchased directly using the proceeds of crime, (illegal payment made as quid pro quo for obtaining Environmental Clearances) have been provisionally attached by the Directorate,” the agency said in a statement.
“Further, during the course of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) investigation, ED has found that the real-estate company has given kickbacks to A Raja as quid pro quo for awarding the Environmental Clearance, around the same period in the year 2007, in the garb of land commission income in the hands of one Benami company of A Raja,” the ED said.
The money laundering case stems from an earlier CBI FIR against Raja, in which the latter agency filed a chargesheet in August before a special court in Chennai. The CBI had charged Raja for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs.5.53 crore during his tenure as the Union environment minister in the UPA government.
The CBI charged that Raja’s close associate Dr. C Krishnamurthy had set up a company Kovai Shelters Promoters Pvt. Ltd. in January 2007 in which a payment of Rs.4.56 crore was received in February that year from Unitech as commission for the purchase of land in Kanchipuram.
The CBI said that the company had not “undertaken any other real estate activity” other than the purported land deal for the real estate firm. The company later bought agricultural land in Coimbatore.
The agency said that Raja, as a minister, had garnered assets worth Rs.5.53 crore, including the payment of Rs.4.56 crore to the company in which Raja’s close relatives were directors, which he could not satisfactorily account for. The CBI has alleged assets in question were disproportionate to the tune of 579 percent from his known sources of income.
The CBI registered the case in 2015 against Raja and 16 others, including his nephew Parameshwari, wife Parameswari, his associate Krishnamurthy who is also director of Kovai Shelters Pvt Limited, wife of Sadiq Batcha, an alleged associate of Raja who had committed suicide, and Reha Banu, a director in Greenhouse Promoters which was earlier owned by Batcha (who found dead in March 2011) among others.
Meanwhile, CBI and ED appeal in the 2G Scam case are pending in Delhi High Court against the acquittal of Raja and others.
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The rot across all political parties will continue till the destruction of the country.
The country is being dismembered by them. Since independence.
Money is the name of the game. And power to have and keep Money.