NEW DELHI: The 2G money laundering scandal has taken a new twist with regard to former Tamil Nadu Deputy CM and DMK leader M K Stalin, who, according to the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 25, knew a key player involved in ripping off huge sums of money — suspected to be kickback for spectrum allocation to a telecom firm.
The ED chargesheet has a passing reference to Stalin, citing the interrogation of late Sadhik Batcha, MD of real estate company Green House Promoters Private Limited and said to be a close aide of former Telecom Minister A Raja.
Batcha’s statement, recorded by the ED on January 28, and February 21, 2011, suggests that Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, charged by the ED with money laundering, had met Stalin along with Raja sometime in 2010 in Chennai. Batcha allegedly committed suicide on March 16, 2011.
Although the agency, which charged DMK supremo M Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal and daughter Kanimozhi along with Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar, had maintained that the DMK chief’s family was aware of the money transfer, it did not mention any more details of other family members.
An ED official conceded that the investigation unearthed links of only 10 individuals and nine companies directly or indirectly assisting money laundering through a circuitous route.
The ED, in its chargesheet, said Kalaignar TV, owned by Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, Dayalu Ammal and Sharad Kumar received `200 crore in 2008 when Raja was the Telecom Minister and this amount was paid as kickback. While the Central Bureau of Investigation in its chargesheet had virtually exonerated Dayalu by making her a prosecution witness, the ED had charged her arguing that her role in the money trail of over `200 crore was thoroughly examined by investigators before invoking charges under the PMLA.