Aastha Thakur
Published on: 11 October 2022 at 11:23 IST
According to authorities, the CBI has filed a charge sheet against DMK politician A Raja for allegedly accumulating disproportionate assets totaling 5.53 crore while serving as a Union minister.
The agency has alleged in its charge sheet submitted to a Special CBI court in Chennai that a close associate of Raja, C Krishnamurthy, had established a company called Kovai Shelters Promoters in January 2007 in which a payment of 4.56 crore was received in February of that year from a Gurugram-based real estate company as commission for the purchase of land in Kanchipuram.
They claim that the payment was a quid pro quo for Mr. Raja to grant the real estate firm the status of an infrastructure company while he was serving as a Union minister rather than compensation for the land sale.
The CBI said that aside from the purported land purchase for the real estate firm, the company had not “undertaken any other real estate activity” in the charge-sheet submitted in August of this year.
The company had later bought agricultural land in Coimbatore.
The agency claims that Raja amassed assets totaling 5.53 crore while serving as a minister, including the payment of 4.56 crore to the business where Raja’s close relatives were directors, which he was unable to account for.
The CBI claims that the assets in question were 579 percent excessive compared to his known sources of income, they said.
The case was filed by the agency in 2015 against Mr. Raja and 16 other people, including his wife Parameswari, nephew Parmesh, associate Krishnamurthy, who is also a director of Kovai Shelters Pvt Limited, wife of Sadiq Basha, a purported associate of Raja who committed suicide, and Reha Banu, a director in Greenhouse Promoters, which was formerly owned by Basha.
Former Telecom Minister Mr. Raja had been prosecuted by the CBI in connection with the case involving the allotment of 2G spectrum as well, but the agency was unable to establish any evidence of corruption against him, leading to his acquittal by a special court.