The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 45 acres of land in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu worth ₹55 Crore purchased in the name of a Benami Company of incumbent DMK Lok Sabha MP A. Raja.
According to the ED, the land was purchased from the bribe money received from one of the largest real estate company as quid pro quo for environmental clearance granted by A. Raja when he was the Environment Minister during 2004-2007.
ED has provisionally attached 45 acres of land in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu worth Rs. 55 Crore purchased in the name of a Benami Company of A. Raja, former Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Environment & Forest during the period 2004-2007.
— ED (@dir_ed) December 22, 2022
Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a chargesheet against the DMK leader in connection with a disproportionate assets case that was registered in 2015.
In its charge sheet filed before in a special CBI court in Chennai, the CBI alleges that DMK leader A Raja acquired disproportionate assets to the tune of ₹5.53 crore during his tenure as Union Minister.
It has been reported that the CBI’s chargesheet details of business enterprise akin to a “shell” company, by a close associate of the former Union minister, C Krishnamurthy, who had set up a company named Kovai Shelters Promoters, in January, 2007 .
The company received a payment of ₹4.56 crore in the following month, from a Gurugram-based real estate company, citing “commission” for purchase of land in Kanchipuram.
CBI sleuths have alleged that the payment was not for the land deal but instead it was a quid pro quo arrangement for giving the real estate firm the status of an infrastructure company by A. Raja, during his tenure as Union Minister. The charge sheet was filed in August this year with the CBI alleging that the company, Kovai Shelters Promoters, had since not ‘undertaken any other real estate activity’ other than the purported land deal for the real estate firm.
The company appears to have later bought agricultural land in Coimbatore. The agency has alleged that that the DMK leader and former Union Minister, A. Raja had accumulated assets worth ₹5.53 crore, including the payment of ₹4.56 crore to the “shell” 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% from his known sources of income, they said. Previous corruption charges against the former union minister, include the UPA’s infamous 2G scam.
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