DMK leader A Raja is facing charges of amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 5.53 crore when he was Union minister.
An agency has filed a charge sheet before the Special CBI court in Chennai alleging that Raja’s close associate, C Krishnamurthy, set up a company called Kovai Shelters Promoters in January of 2007, which got Rs 4.56 crore as commission from a Gurugram-based real estate company for buying land in Kanchipuram in February of 2007.
It’s alleged the payment wasn’t for the land deal but rather a quid pro quo for Raja, giving the firm infrastructure company status as he served as Union minister.
As the CBI alleges in its charge sheet, the company didn’t do any other real estate deals aside from the purported land deal.
The company had later bought land in Coimbatore.
As a minister, Raja accumulated assets worth Rs 5.53 crore, including Rs 4.56 crore, to a company where Raja’s close relatives were directors, which he couldn’t account for, the agency said.
It is alleged that the assets in question are disproportionate to his known sources of income by 579 per cent.
A case was filed against Raja and 16 others in 2015, including Parmesh, Parameswari, Krishnamurthy, the director of Kovai Shelters Pvt Limited, wife of Sadiq Basha, an alleged associate of Raja who committed suicide, and Reha Banu, a director of Greenhouse Promoters owned by Basha.
Despite the CBI’s efforts to book Raja, the former Telecom Minister, in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation case, the court acquitted him as the investigation failed to prove any corruption charges.
