Chennai:
After the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its chargesheet named Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, as a co-conspirator with A Raja in the 2G scam, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa called for her arrest.
In a press statement, the AIADMK chief also demanded all members of Karunanidhi's family should be included in the chargesheet. She also said that the telecast of Kalaignar TV should be stopped forthwith.
Here is the entire statement:The second charge sheet in the 2G spectrum scam case presented by the CBI opens up several issues. It indicates that a clear kick-back link has been established between some key beneficiaries of the Spectrum largesse doled out by the then Union Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja and the family of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi. This link has been established through the Rs. 214 crore payment made to Kalaignar TV through a maze of companies linked to Shahid Balwa, the promoter of Swan Telecom, one of the biggest beneficiaries. 60% of Kalaignar TV is owned by Karunanidhi's second wife Dayalu Ammal. And 20% belongs to Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi's daughter by his third wife Rajathi. Both Dayalu Ammal and Kanimozhi were questioned by the CBI some weeks ago and ever since there has been speculation that their names would figure in the CBI's charge sheet. In this context, the inclusion of Kanimozhi's name in the charge sheet filed by the CBI today, comes as no surprise. What is surprising, however, is that while Kanimozhi and Sharath Kumar who hold 20% shares each have been named in the chargesheet, Dayalu Ammal who holds majority stakes, i.e. 60% has been left out.
In this context, there are some issues that deserve closer scrutiny.
Why is it that Dayalu Ammal holds 60% stakes in Kalaignar TV, while Kanimozhi holds only 20%? The reason is that they do not hold these stakes in their individual, personal capacities. They are figureheads, representing larger interests. Kanimozhi represents herself and her mother Rajathi. So the 20% stake she holds in Kalaignar TV in reality belongs equally to both of them. Similarly, the 60% in the name of Dayalu Ammal represents the combined stake-holding of six individuals, Dayalu Ammal herself, her husband M. Karunanidhi and their children, M.K. Azhagiri, M.K. Stalin, M.K. Selvi and M.K. Thamizharasu. There is no justification for Shahid Balwa to pay Rs. 214 crores to a just-launched Tamil TV channel in which he has no other interest unless he had been asked to do so by Telecom Minister Raja as a quid pro quo for allotment of 2G Spectrum licence. And Raja need not make a demand for such a payment to Kalaignar TV, an entity in which he is not involved, unless he had been specifically asked to do so by his party leader, M. Karunanidhi.
In short, the Rs 214 crores paid by Balwa was a clear bribe to Karunanidhi. The beneficiaries of the bribe, if the CBI had not filed a case, would have been the entire Karunanidhi family. As such, the interests of justice would be served only if all the members of the Karunanidhi family, starting with the patriarch himself, are named in the charge sheet.
The connection of the Karunanidhi family with the Rs 1,76,000 crore Spectrum scam does not end there.
On December 17, 2008, Shahid Balwa's Swan Telecom allotted shares worth Rs 380 crores to Genex Exim Ventures Pvt Ltd, a company launched hardly four months earlier with a paid up share capital of just one lakh rupees. Genex Exim was represented on the Board of Swan Telecom by Ahmed Syed Salahuddin, the younger son of Syed Mohamad Salahuddin, an NRI businessman, who heads the Dubai-based conglomerate ETA Ascon-Star Group. This group has been closely linked with all the construction projects of the DMK, whenever it has been in power, starting from the Anna fly-over built in the early 1970s to the Rs 1,200 crore new Secretariat building, which is still under construction. This group is also implementing the Tamil Nadu Government's Rs 2,000 crore health insurance scheme. Some key players of this group find specific mention in the Justice Sarkaria Commission Report on charges of corruption then inquired into against Karunanidhi, as money launderers.
The involvement of a company with such close and long-standing links to Karunanidhi, and which has a track record of money laundering, in the Spectrum case cannot be a mere coincidence. It is further reinforcement of the claim that large sums of money, much more than the Rs 214 crore traced to Kalaignar TV, have gone to the Karunanidhi family, possibly safely salted away through dubious hawala transactions in safe havens abroad.
Clearly, the buck does not stop with merely naming Kanimozhi in the 2G Spectrum case charge sheet. The operational licence granted to Kalaignar TV, which was clearly started with graft money should be withdrawn and the channel should be taken off air immediately. Kanimozhi, like all the others charge sheeted so far, should be arrested. All the other members of the Karunanidhi family, who were direct or indirect beneficiaries in the gargantuan scam should also be charge sheeted and arrested. The money trail has to be fully traced. The funds that have been taken out of India should be recovered and brought back. Only then can the investigation into the mother of all scams reach its logical and desired conclusion. The investigating agency has to keep in mind that the entire scam has been master-minded by one who has perfected corruption to scientific standards.