FRONT PAGE | Friday, January 22, 2010 | Email | Print | 
CBI catches up with Raja kin cos
J Gopikrishnan | New Delhi
Dubious firms made a killing in 2G allotment
On the trail of spectrum scam kickbacks, the CBI is probing the role of Telecom Minister A Raja’s close relatives in parking the ill-gotten wealth in family-run companies in Chennai and Singapore.
A CBI special team from Delhi in Chennai for the past week has been tracking the huge wealth amassed by Raja’s family-run companies and interrogated two key persons supervising the financial transactions of these firms.
According to a CBI spokesperson, sleuths have raided the residence of M Kevin, who is the top executive of Raja’s family-run companies Green House Promoters, Equaas Estates and Shivakamam Tradings. The CBI also revealed they had interrogated the auditor of these companies V Ganapathi Subramanian.
The CBI’s sudden turn to Raja’s family-run companies in connection with the investigation on spectrum scandal is going to be a huge embarrassment to the UPA Government in the coming days.
According to sources, the CBI sleuths had got evidence of huge money transaction from abroad to real estate companies like Green House Promoters and Equaas Estates. The money flowed from Singapore, Malaysia and Dubai into these companies during the same period in 2008 when the controversial allocation of 2G spectrum took place.
Green House and Equaas Estates were floated in 2004, within a few months after Raja became Union Minister for Environment. The company was promoted by Raja’s eldest nephew RP Parameshkumar and Minister’s close aide Sadhick Batcha.
First Raja’s wife MA Parameswari became the director of these two companies and later resigned through a pre-dated letter to avoid controversies as she had given Raja’s official residence in Delhi in the Registrar of Companies’ documents. The same day her share was transferred to Raja’s niece Malarvizhi. Raja’s brother A Kaliyaperumal is also director of these two companies.
After expanding their operations to Bangalore, Green House Promoters had floated a subsidiary company Green House Promoters (S) Pvt Ltd in Singapore in 2007, violating all FEMA and RBI guidelines.
Sources said the CBI is working on clues that the Singapore-based company operating from Serangoon (#04-28, Serangoon Plaza, 320 - Serangoon Road, Singapore - 218108. Tel : 62934850) was used for money parking and hawala transactions. From this office huge volume of money reached Chennai office to purchase land across the country, source said.
The Pioneer had earlier reported that Equaas Estates showed Rs 755 crore turnover in the first year of operation. This whopping figure was declared to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) by its auditor Ganapathy. The company kept this figures unchanged for four year, till The Pioneer reported it in December 2009. According to the highly placed sources, this over-valuation was purposefully done to get loans from Singapore based banks.
Raja’s brother Kaliyaperumal was a smalltime farmer in Peramballur till 2003. But at the end of the year he started Shivakamam Tradings along with nephew Paramesh Kumar. Raja was Minister of State for Health those days. Even as Raja was advocating against smoking, Shivakamam Tradings kicked off its first business venture by getting the cigarette giant ITC’s dealership. Later, when Raja became Union Environmental Minister, the company also got Hero Honda dealership.
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