Ex-Telecom Minister A Raja on his way to court in Delhi
Former Telecom Minister A Raja and parliamentarian Kanimozhi were granted bail today by a Delhi court in a case of money-laundering. Both leaders who are from the Tamil Nadu party the DMK were present in court.
They have been charged with money-laundering a bribe of nearly Rs 200 crores in the telecom scam that was allegedly engineered by Mr Raja when he was union Telecom Minister in 2008.
Kanimozhi's step-mother, 84-year-old Dayalu Ammal, who is among the 19 accused in the case, was allowed bail this morning. Kanimozhi's father, M Karunanidhi, is the head of the DMK.
The investigations into the telecom scam have fashioned two separate cases against the DMK leaders. The CBI, which began probing the scam in 2010, has accused Mr Raja and Kanimozhi, along with top executives from major telecom firms, of criminal conspiracy. Separately, in May this year, the Enforcement Directorate launched an inquiry into alleged money-laundering.
Both Mr Raja and Kanimozhi have spent time in jail on the basis of the CBI's charges against them; they are out on bail in that case.
The premise of the CBI's investigation is that Mr Raja accepted kickbacks from firms to grant them out-of-turn mobile network licenses at throwaway prices. One of those companies, it says, paid Mr Raja nearly 200 crores as a bribe; the money was allegedly routed to a television channel in Chennai that is partly owned by Kanimozhi and her step-mother. The routing of the kickback involved money-laundering, according to the Enforcement Directorate.