New tapes reveal bid to cover up 2G dirty money

Supreme Court lawyer and Aam Aadmi Party leader Prashant Bhushan added a twist to the 2G scam when he released phone tapes revealing Tamil Nadu’s Intelligence chief acted on behalf of the Karunanidhi family to extort money from various sources to repay a Rs200 crore loan from 2G scam accused Shahid Balwa.

The tapes reveal that Jaffer Sait passed off the money as payment for advertisements on the family’s Kalaignar TV. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case, said that it will analyse the taped conversations.

Earlier in the day, Bhushan released transcripts of four tapes containing talks between Sait, M Karunanidhi’s secretary M Shanmuganathan, Kalaignar CEO Sharad Kumar Reddy and 2G accused Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.

According to the CBI chargesheet, Balwa had given Rs200 crore as illegal gratification to Kalaignar TV in lieu of 2G spectrum being allocated by then telecom minister and DMK MP A Raja; Kanimozhi, her mother Dayalu Ammal and CEO Sharad Kumar are shareholders of Kalaignar TV. Kanimozhi had contended that Kalaignar had borrowed Rs200 crore from Balwa and the same has already been repaid.

The tapes, however, show that Kanimozhi, Sharad Kumar and Karunanidhi were involved in a dubious ‘cover-up’ operation.