Kanimozhi, member of Parliament and daughter of Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi, stands the risk of landing in Tihar jail, where former telecom minister A Raja has already been lodged.
Summoned by a CBI special court on May 6 in the 2G case, Kanimozhi’s risk became grave with the Delhi high court adjourning the hearing of the bail pleas of the five telecom executives accused in the case to May 6.
Source .Hindustan Times % May 2011.
Close on the heels of Kanimozhi being charge sheeted in the Supplementary FIR in the 2G Scam, her arrest seems to be imminent.
She has been charged with co- conspiracy and Prevention of Corruption Act.
Excerpts from the Charge Sheet.
“Investigation has disclosed that there are a no. of circumstances which together conclusively establish that the amount of Rs. 200 crore (the rest was interest) paid by Dynamix Realty to Kalaignar TV through Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables and Cineyug Films was not a genuine business transaction but in the nature of illegal gratification paid in lieu of the UAS Licenses, valuable spectrum and other undue benefits given by the accused public servants to Swan Telecom.
The refund of the entire amount has occurred after the registration of the CBI case. In fact the date when the refund of the amount started, 23.12.10, coincides with the date when accused A Raja was asked to join investigation at the CBI office on 24.12.10 and 25.12.10. A major chunk of funds was refunded after 25.12.10.
Investigation has established that pursuant to the criminal conspiracy, accused Raja, Sharad Kumar, Kanimozhi, stakeholders of KTV, accepted and received an illegal gratification of Rs. 200 crore in KTV from accused Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka from the accounts of DB Group Companies in 2008-09, as a reward in lieu of the undue favours shown by Raja, in connivance with other accusd public servants, in allocation of UAS Licenses, valuable and scarce spectrum in various telecom companies and other undue favours to Swan Telecom during 2008-09.“
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/cbi-chargesheet-on-kanimozhi-dayalu-101423
Her arrest seems to be imminent.
Karunanidhi seems to have discussed the issue with M.K.Stalin and Alagiri and they seem to be of the opinion that nothing is to be done in this case as the deal with Congress has been struck for the Election 2011,touching on this issue as well-of the imminent naming of Kanimozhi in the FIR.(TimesNow).
The threat of DMK Executive Committee meeting (as indicated in the DMK Press Note that’ despite all co-operation rendered’ by the DMK to CBI, it has charge sheeted Kani mozhi’) on 27th seems to be an empty threat.
Indications are the threat will remain as what it is-a Threat.
A deal seems to have been struck by the Congress with DMK prior to present polls that Dayalu,wife of Karunanidhi will be spared and Kanimozhi will be charge sheeted.
Karunanidhi’s sons M.K .Stalin and Azhagiri seem to have suggested that nothing is to be done by the party to save Kanimozhi as she has brought disrepute(?) to the family.( for the uninitiated,Kanimozhi is the Daughter of Karunanidhi through Rajathi, his companion(!?)
Despite being the stake holder of 60% in Kalaignar TV,Dayalu is being let off as’she has declared that she does not know English and the day to day affairs are managed by Kalaignar TV CEO Sharath Kumar.( Kanimozhis has 20 % stake).
In legal parlance this will enable Dayalu to plead ‘not culpable'(some defense!)
Let’s watch how the Family drama pans out.
Story:
The CBI on Monday named five more people, including Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi‘s daughter and DMK MPKanimozhi, co-accused in the supplementary chargesheet filed by the CBI in connection with the 2G spectrum case.
Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal has, however, not been named in the 2G case.
Karunanidhi has amassed wealth beyond wildest imagination for a man who ‘landed in Chennai with a Steel trunk’
His Family Tree shall make Royal Court Of Arms wince.
His method of creating benamis is to be seen to be believed.
-Wife,Companions,Sons,Daughters,Grand sons, Grand daughters,Nephews, Nieces,Sister,sisters son in laws,Son in law,son in laws’s parents.his next in command in the party,party men, Bureaucrats,Drivers, Peons and cooks.
He has a Trust in his parent’s name which he controls indirectly.
His kin have been acquiring Educational institutions and Real Estate on a large-scale.
He owns Industries indirectly.
To know more please read my blog filed under ‘Corruption’
How has he become such a power in Tamil Nadu?
Separate blog Follows.
He has a TV Network-Kalaignar TV , from which he withdrew in Public but his wife holds shares.
His grand sons control the Film industry having production and distribution Houses-Red Giant Movies,Cloud Nine movies-his nephew production House Sun Movies.
Sun TV Network is controlled by his sister’s son at the top and Bangalore Operations are controlled by his son in law.
Story:
This week, continuing its campaign against out-of-turn allotments of land and property, TEHELKA has an exposé on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) which commands a large land bank, has a government discretionary quota (GDQ) under which 15 percent of all allotments can be recommended by the CM. Eligibility for allotment under GDQ is as follows: single/deserted women; widows; social workers; physically handicapped persons; defence personnel; ex-servicemen; eminent persons in the field of science, arts, literature, economics, public administration and sports; freedom fighters; government servants with unblemished service records; employees of PSUs, central government undertakings and nationalised banks; PF institutions; journalists; university staff; and employees of local bodies and municipalities.
While some of these categories sound kosher, most of them raise a fundamental question: why should the government have the power to give coveted land to select employees and journalists over others? The only rationale could be proximity — which is an untenable reason for being the beneficiary of political favours, often worth several crores.
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne111210Coverstory.asp
PERHAPS THE starkest example of a family member whose phenomenal growth started completely outside democratic space is Azhagiri, Karunanidhi’s second son, now the Union chemicals and fertilisers minister. The 62-year-old contested his first election only in 2009, from the Madurai constituency. What looked like a political debut, however, was only a legitimisation of his iron grip over the southern districts for more than 30 years. In the recently leaked phone taps that exposed the 2G spectrum scam, TN Information Technology Minister Poongothai Aladi Aruna, speaking to telecom lobbyist Niira Radia, referred to Azahagiri as “a cut-throat politician”.
It all started with a banishment. In the early 1980s, Karunanidhi had sent Azhagiri, then a bank employee, to Madurai, which was his wife Kanthi’s home town. He was to run the Madurai edition of the DMK mouthpieceMurasoli, but was given no say in editorial decisions. He soon lost interest and directed his energies to other profitable ventures. Visibly, Azhagiri now runs a TV channel, a cable service provider (Royal Video), a wedding hall and a huge showroom of silk textiles. But covertly, he also controls the muscle power and moneybags that run the city — the contractors, brokers and land mafia. “Do you know how many stories I’ve written about people who’ve been threatened, harassed or killed after going to the police or court to challenge Azhagiri and his associates?” asks Idaya, a Maduraibased Tamil journalist. “After a point, I realised that there is no point in criticising the king in his own court.”
As Azhagiri unleashed his kangaroo courts, extortion rackets and henchmen on Madurai, election after election, the city’s largely working class population kept voting CPM candidates to the Lok Sabha, and the AIADMK to the legislature. “Azhagiri used to say that Madurai was being run by the wrong parties,” says TKS Elangovan, senior DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP. In 1996, when the DMK swept the state, Azhagiri didn’t waste any time. “He used this opportunity to strengthen the DMK cadre in the south,” says Elangovan. When asked to elaborate on Azhagiri’s modus operandi, Elangovan grins broadly. “Hard work and charisma,” he says.
A long list of Election Commission notices to the Madurai wing of the DMK is less circumspect. It has found Azhagiri’s men guilty of dropping sealed envelopes with Rs. 500 notes in voters’ letter boxes (four notes for four voters) and his cable operators offering six months free usage to subscribers. Cartons of saris were found stored in the house of Azhagiri’s right-hand man, to be distributed at a rally. Weekly biriyani feasts were being held in slums, and women were being given cash coupons or pamphlets that could be exchanged for Rs. 100 at DMK offices. Before every election, goons were making door-to-door visits with sickles hanging down their backs. If anyone dared to protest, their land was confiscated and their vehicles destroyed.
While his men lashed through Madurai, Azhagiri himself cultivated the manner of a benevolent regional don with the dangerous unpredictability of a Sonny Corleone. Several Madurai-based bureaucrats, all of whom requested anonymity, admitted to having received death threats directly from Azhagiri in his pre-ministerial days. “If I didn’t give the tenders to the men he wanted me to, he would smile softly, look at his henchmen, and leave the room,” says a senior PWD employee. “It was the scariest thing in the world.”
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne260311Coverstory.asp
Some interesting facts also emerged from the open offer made on Monday:
– Kalanidhi Maran’s net worth was Rs 13,384 crore ($2.97 billion) as on June 10
– The new promoters propose to change the name of SpiceJet after acquisition and shift its registered office away from Gurgaon
– They have, however, undertaken not to sell any substantial asset of the airline
– SpiceJet was previously called Genius Leasing, M.G. Express, Modiluft and Royal Airways
– The airline has now been given permission overseas to Bangladesh, the Maldives and Nepal.
Commenting on the deal, Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equities head at leading brokerage SMC Capitals, said SpiceJet was among few airlines in India and globally which was running profitably.
“In the future if the government relaxes foreign investment norms for airlines, then SpiceJet can become a target for acquisition for a foreign carrier, netting the promoters a handsome premium,” Thunuguntla told IANS.
He said apart from the profits, which amounted to Rs 61.44 crore in the year ended March 31, the carrier can also fly abroad. In this regard, the Sun Network brand can capitalise on the large south Indian Indian diaspora in east Asia.
Maran’s SUN TV Network boasts 20 channels that reach 95 million households in India. It also beams to 27 overseas destinations with large south Indian diaspora including the US, Canada, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
This apart, in its quest to be called a complete media and entertainment company, it runs 45 FM radio stations, two daily newspapers with a circulation of 1.2 million, four magazines and a direct-to-home satellite TV service with 5.5 million subscribers.
Its cinema arm makes at least eight movies every year, several of them with one of the biggest budgets for Indian films.
For those who have been following 2G scam,I have found some additional information on the subject through
Story:
The CBI will charge India’s top conglomerates the Essar Group and Relaince ADAG with criminal conspirary and cheating in the multi billion dollar 2G Telecom Licenses Scandal.This Corruption Scam was brought directly under the control of the Supreme Court as the government failed to move against powerful businessmen and politicians.Now the investigative agencies which have broken free from the ruling party’s interference have given the status of the investigation to the Court.The CBI has said that the 2 companies Loop and Swan Telecom were used as front companies by established telecom operators Essar and Reliance Communications to get more license.Note this defeated the entire exercise and there is ample circumstantial evidence to prove that the telecom minister Raja and his cronies connived with the companies to give precious spectrum for a song.Massive kickbacks were given through real estate companies like DB Realty whose top billionaire owners are cooling their heels in jail as well.
It remains to be seen whether the top corporate executives of India’s topmost conglomerates get prosecuted over these wrongdoings.Essar and ADAG are amongst the top 10 conglomerates in India with wide ranging operations with billions of dollars in revenues nationally as well as internationally.The Supreme Court has been instrumental in bringing this case so far as the government seems totally coopted by corruption.It has been frequently been castigated by the Supreme Court and has shamelessly defended corrupt bureaucrats and politicians.It remains to be seen how this 2G Telecom Case ends.If justice is done,then it may provide a new chapter to India’s corruption ridden story till now.
Related:
Sitaram’s letter had identified three elements in the telecom scam. One was of course giving away 122 licenses at 2001 prices in 2008. In 2001, there were barely 4 million mobile subscribers as against 300 million subscribers in 2008. With this expansion of the telecom market, using 2001 prices in 2008 was nothing but providing largesses to friends and relations. While the media focussed on this aspect of the scam, there were also two other components. One was the conversion of CDMA licenses to Unified Access Services (UAS), by virtue of which Reliance and Tata entered the GSM based mobile services. The third was the extra spectrum that the existing operators had hogged beyond their originally sanctioned amount. The table below summarises the amounts computed by the CPI(M) as in the letter to PM by Sitaram Yechury and the computations by CAG.
|
These figures are now longer conjectures of experts or figures computed by people who could be accused of being critical of the Government. These are figures worked out by a bunch of government auditors who had access to the files of the Department of Telecom and have come to their independent conclusions.
Who were the major beneficiaries of the scam? As the CAG Report makes clear, not only were the new licenses for 2G undervalued, but certain parties picked out for special favours. Swan and Unitech, the two real estate companies, were particular favourites. The second set of beneficiaries were the CDMA license holders — Reliance and Tata — who were given cross-over licenses for the bigger GSM market. The third were those GSM operators – Vodafone and Bharati in particular — who were holding spectrum well-beyond their original allotted spectrum.
The CAG report has also substantiated the charges made in the letter that Sitaram Yechury had written regarding violations of TRAI recommendations and disregarding the advise of other Ministries. The Report states, “The entire process of spectrum allocation was undertaken in an arbitrary manner. The Hon’ble Prime Minister had stressed on the need for a fair and transparent allocation of spectrum, and the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Law and Justice had sought for the decision regarding spectrum pricing to be considered by an EGoM. Brushing aside these concerns and advices, the Department of Telecommunications, in 2008, proceeded to issue 122 new licences for 2G spectrum at 2001 prices, thus flouting all rules and procedures to be followed in a parliamentary democratic set up. The process followed for spectrum allocation was also unfair, considering the fact that DoT did not follow its own guidelines on eligibility conditions, arbitrarily changed the cut off date for receipt of applications post facto and altered the conditions of the FCFS (first-come first-served) procedure it had been following, gave unfair advantage of certain companies over others thus creating an environment which can not be perceived as transparent and fair.”
As the CAG Report makes clear, the manipulations to the stated first-come first-served policies were done to benefit certain parties. It again substantiates what Yechury had brought out in his May letter to the PM. The original first-come first-served had the application date as defining who are first-come. On Jan 10, 2010 this was changed to who fulfils LOI conditions first amongst the parties selected. CAG states, “Thus DoT deviated from its declared FCFS (first-cum-first-served) policy though MOCIT (Minister of Communications & IT) maintained that it was continuing ‘with the policy for processing of applications’
http://www.newsclick.in/india/cag-report-raja-has-no-clothes
Lalith Modi is somewhere lurking.
NEW DELHI: Corporate lobbyist Niira Radiahas told the CBI that Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar may be controlling the controversial DB Realty and may have pursued the issue of spectrum and licence forSwan Telecom with former telecom minister A Raja.
In a statement to CBI, which has been filed as part of the chargesheet in the 2G scam, Radia says on being asked by a journalist how she knew about Pawar lobbying with Raja to get approvals for Swan, “That as per the general perception in Mumbai as well as outside DB Realties (sic) directly or indirectly (is) controlled by Sharad Pawar and his family members.”
Radia added that she had no “documentary proof or some other evidence” to back up her allegation. She, however, said Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka “are key persons in DB Realty”, and “in that background, I had quoted the name of Sharad Pawar who might have pursued the matter with Raja, then telecom minister, for showing (favour) to Swan as well as to Anil Ambani Reliance Communications in issuing of UAS (unified access service) licence and dual technology”.
Pawar has in the past denied having anything to do with the DB Realty group although Goenka has said that he has family links with the Maratha leader. Goenka`s Dynamix group has a large presence in Baramati, Pawar`s constituency.
Radia gave four separate statements to CBI, most of them dealing with the several phone conversations she had with various people including Ratan Tata, A Raja, Raja`s personal secretary R K Chandolia, several journalists and senior executives from various corporate houses. The conversations and her explanations before the investigation agency illustrates her proximity to Raja, Chandolia and many others.
The lobbyist also told CBI that former IAS officers Pradeep Baijal and C M Vasudev were given “sweat equity” of 10% each in her consulting firm. Baijal was TRAI chairman until March 2006, while Vasudev held several crucial posts in the finance ministry.
You must be logged in to post a comment.