The DB Realty chief also admitted that he transferred the money to Green House Promoters in return for spectrum allocation to DB Realty’s telecom arm, Swan Telecom, at very low prices.
DB Realty chief Shahid Usman Balwa has admitted to the CBI that he has parked substantial sums of money in former telecom minister A Raja’s benami company Green House Promoters.
He also admitted that he transferred the money to Green House Promoters in return for spectrum allocation to DB Realty’s telecom arm, Swan Telecom, at very low prices, said CBI sources.
Raja’s close associate, Sadhick Batcha, is the managing director of Green House Promoters, while Batcha’s wife Reha Banu is the director.
According to CBI sources, Balwa and Raja were grilled on Saturday over the huge sums pumped into Green House Promoters. They were also questioned about the incriminating documents that had been seized from Batcha’s office and residences during a three-day search by the CBI in October last year.
“Raja granted 2G license to Swan Telecom, and in return, Balwa invested in Raja’s front companies, with Green House Promoters being one of them,” said a senior CBI official.
In fact, in a letter written to the CBI a month ago, Balwa mentions he’d met Batcha for the first time in the offices of the ministry of environment and forest in 2006, when Raja was the environment minister.
Balwa had then negotiated a potential real estate deal in Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu with Green House Promoters.
A Raja hails from Perambalur, and his wife MA Parameswari was for a long time a director in Green House Promoters. The CBI was able to use this letter to establish the link between Balwa and Raja via Batcha.
Green House Promoters Pvt Ltd was formed barely four months after Raja became a cabinet minister (in charge of environment and forests) for the first time in May 2004. The Chennai-based real estate company was floated with an initial capital of only Rs1 lakh. Batcha was made the managing director of the company and Raja’s wife Parmeswari was the one of the directors.
But later on, Parameswari’s shares were transferred to Raja’s niece, Malarvizhi. Raja’s nephews RP Parmesh Kumar and R Ram Ganesh, and the former telecom minister’s brothers, A Kaliaperumal and A Ramchandran also became stakeholders in the company. With these high-profile inductions, the share capital of the firm surged to a respectable Rs3 crore within 14 months of the operations being launched.
CBI sources also confirmed that Shahid Balwa had initially planned to pick up 30% shares in the DMK-controlled Kalaignar TV. Sixty per cent of shares in Kalaignar TV are held by Karunanidhi’s second wife Dayalu Ammal’s family, and 20% by Kanimozhi.
The remaining 20% is held by broadcasting expert Sharad Kumar, who oversees channel operations. The agency is also probing the alleged transfer of Rs214 crore from the DB group to Kalaignar TV.
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