The 48-page
supplementary chargesheet filed by the CBI yesterday shook India, Tamil Nadu especially. The state's first family is at the eye of the storm with Kanimozhi, CM Karunanidhi's daughter being named among the co-accused.
The 43-year-old, who is referred to as the literary heir of Karunanidhi, seems to have picked up more than just literary flair from her father. She has been charged of being an "active brain" in one of the biggest scams to rock the country.
Though Kanimozhi owns only 20% of the Kalaignar TV shares, she was actively involved in all the administrative affairs of the enterprise. She was also instrumental in A Raja, who went on to pursue Kalaignar's case with the Information and Broadcast Ministry and Tata Sky, being reinstated as communications minister in 2009.
Charges were not levied against Dayalu Ammal, the majority share-holder in Kalaignar TV, as she is a woman who is capable of understanding and communicating only in Tamil. She was found to be a mere spectator, and is said to be unaware of any of the financial transactions that took place.
Karim Morani (Director, Cineyug Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.), Sharad Kumar (Director, Kalaignar TV), Asif Balwa (Director, Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables) and Rajiv Agarwal (Director, Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables) are the others named in the chargesheet. All the 5 co-accused have been charged under Section 120 B of IPC, read with Sections 7 & 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (which deals with criminal conspiracy / public servants taking gratification other than legal renumeration).
The 8,000-odd documents seem to contain the evidence for the following:
1) Dynamix Realty paid Rs. 200 crores as illegal gratification of Kalaignar TV between December 2008 and August 2009, through Kusegoan and Cineyug Films (where DB holds at 49% stake at present).
2) The fund flow began on 23 December 2008, after Swan Telecom received Rs. 3,609 crores from Etisalat Mauritius and Genex Exim Ventures.
3) Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables received Rs. 209.25 crores in 16 transactions from DB Realty.
4) Rs. 206.25 crores were transferred from Kusegoan to Cineyug Films in 12 transactions.
A Raja (former telecom minister and kingpin of the scam), Siddhartha Behura (former telecom secretary), R K Chandolia (Raja's former private secretary), Sanjay Chandra (Chairman, Unitech Wireless), Vinod Goenka (Co-promoter, Swan Telecom), Shahid Balwa (Managing Director, DB Realty), and Gautam Doshi, Surender Pipara and Hari Nair ( Group MD, Group President and Sr. VP, respectively, of Reliance ADAG) are already in judicial custody.
They were charged in the first chargesheet filed by the CBI on 2 April 2011.