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S adiq Batcha, a key aide of former telecom minister A Raja, is said to have committed suicide at his
residence in Chennai on Wednesday.

Currently the police are seeing this as a case of suicide, but they do not rule out foul play either.ÊÊ

aver since Raja's arrest, there was immense pressure on Batcha, who, according to the Central
Bureau of Investigation, was the key aide of the former minister.Ê

The promoter of a real estate company named Greenhouse Developers, Batcha was scheduled to
leave for New Delhi on Wednesday. Ê

The investigation by the Central Bureau of investigation alleges that Greenhouse was the front
company belonging to Raja, and all the money earned through the 2G spectrum scam was parked in
various places through this company. Ê

The investigations have also shown that Batcha handled all the money which came into Raja's hand.
It was also found that he had invested money in a lot of real estate projects in Tamil Nadu.Ê

Today there is no reason for the police to believe that it could have been a case of murder as well.
Batcha had with him too much information and he was the man who would have given CBI the exact

map of the 2G money trail.

Sources say that even if it was a case of suicide, it could have been due to the immense pressure
since the CBI was also looking into the underworld and the hawala link to the money trail in the multi-
crore 2G scam. Ê

It is said that Batcha was the link between the 2G money and also the underworld and the hawala
operators. Ê

The CBI, which has raided Batcha's house on two occasions, was all set to question him in
connection with the money trail. Ê

Moreover, the CBI had also decided to arrest Batcha and question him in custody.Ê

This was something that none of those involved in the money trail could have afforded, since it would
have blown the lid of many persons connected with the scam. Ê
Sources say that at any cost the persons involved wanted to prevent any questioning of Batcha and
could have stepped up the pressure on him. The police would verify his call records to see if there
were any death threats which ultimately led to the suicide of Batcha.Ê

The CBI during its probe had found that Raja had many fronts through which the 2G money was
parked. However, all aspects of the probe showed that it was the firm managed by Batcha which had
played the most crucial role. Ê

S ources say that Batcha was just a front man and did not take any decision on his own. He was
brought into the picture due to his contacts that he had built up when he was a realtor. Ê

He is alleged to have contacts with hawala operators and also the underworld through which he had
managed to park funds in various places. Ê

The CBI questioning of Batcha would have led them to the route of the money trail. In addition to this,
they were also trying to find out if Batcha had parked any money for the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam.Ê

Investigators say his death is a big blow to the investigation since it was extremely important that this
man was questioned since he knew the exact details regarding the money trail as he had played a
huge part in it.Ê

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Sadiq Batcha, a key aide of former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja who committed suicide on
Wednesday, was the Managing Director of Green House Promoters Private Limited.

The MBA graduate and young entrepreneur, who hails from Raja's native town Perambalur, was also
allegedly the former minister's business associate.

A Kaliaperumal, Raja's elder brother, is the Joint MD of Green House Promoters.

The company was floated months after Raja became a Union minister in 1999. Soon, the real estate
company flourished, acquiring huge tracts of land in the state's small towns and selling it at a huge
premium.

Batcha and his company came under the Central Bureau of Investigation scanner for the first time
when it turned out that the company indirectly benefited from the spectrum scam by getting shares of
a company which, in turn, became a partner in Swan Telecom -- one of the beneficiaries of the first-
come-first-served policy.

The CBI had conducted raids at his office in Chennai in January, though the details were not
revealed.

The first time Batcha came into the investigation net was when anforcement Directorate officials paid
a secret visit to Perambalur for preliminary investigations.

It was alleged that Batcha had forcibly acquired large tracts of land from the poor at cheap rates and
sold it to MRF for a bomb.

After the raids, investigators said the prime angle was to find out if and how Batcha had diverted
funds made from the 2G spectrum scam into other ventures.

Batcha was virtually a nobody till A Raja became an MP for the first time in 1996.

Batcha, born in Tamil Nadu's Karur district, has three brothers. While Batcha stayed in Karur, his
brothers Jamal Mohammed and Jaffar Ali got into the real estate business.

It is said that Batcha moved from Karur to Perambalur to earn a living. He had a modest beginning,
selling mattresses and clothes as he went from door-to-door on foot, before graduating to a cycle.

It was around this time that he got acquainted with people in the real estate business. He began as a
broker, scoping out for land wherever his salesman job took him.

Soon he was lured by the lucre of the real estate business and began buying land himself.
Those who know his origin say he would buy land from someone and give the party a token sum
upfront. Then, when he sold it to a bigger party at a profit, he would settle the original party using the
proceeds.

As he tried to diversify, he took huge sums of loans from banks and private lenders. As some of these
ventures failed, he came under huge debt. As the lenders closed in, he needed the services of a
lawyer. That lawyer was A Raja.

Those were the days before Raja entered politics. He had just finished his law studies and he bailed
out Batcha. Thus, a friendship was also struck.

Raja got a DMK ticket for the Perambalur reserved Lok Sabha seat in 1996. As he rose within the
DMK ranks, Batcha rose in the real estate sphere.

Raja's win again in 1999 (Raja's first term lasted a mere 13 days as the NDA government fell) and rise
as a union minister, coincided with the floating of Batcha's Green House Promoters.

Raja's wife Parameswari was initially part of the company. She then withdrew into the background, as
Raja's nephew Paramesh Kumar joined in. Kumar soon became a builder, doing construction work for
Batcha.

Soon allegations started surfacing that whenever important infrastructure projects were announced for
Perambalur, the land was already acquired at low rates by Batcha and his group and that is where
trouble started. With the 2G spectrum scam surfacing, it was compounded and has finally ended with
his suicide.
  

 



 
Ê
Ê

, a journalist with the £
 newspaper, had in mid-2008 broken the 2G spectrum
allocation scam story. Since then a lot has happened. Andimuthu Raja was booted out as Union
telecom minister and subsequently arrested; and the Central Bureau of Investigation has been
diligently probing the scam.

The latest development in the case has caught many unawares. Sadiq Batcha, a key aide of Raja,
reportedly committed suicide at his Chennai residence on Wednesday. Batcha was considered to
have been Raja's key 'money-transfer-aide' and the only person who could have shown the CBI the
2G scam's money trail.

 

's @
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 caught up with Gopikrishnan to get a better understanding of the latest
twist in the case and its likely impact on the investigations.

Gopikrishnan, who has been closely following the developments, says that he finds it hard to believe
that Batcha committed suicide.


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Sadiq Batcha was the front man and alleged money launderer of Raja. He was also a connectional
link between (DB Realty's MD) Shahid Balwa and Raja.

Balwa's deposition in front of the CBI and in the court said that he (Batcha) had been in touch with
him for a long time; from 2005 onwards.

Moreover, Batcha was reportedly the main component in the money transfer issue. Batcha used to
run Raja's companies like Greenhouse Promoters and aquass astate (where he was managing
director). So he basically was the link between the 2G money trail and A Raja. He could also have
been the link between Balwa's alleged money transfer to Kalaignar TV.


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Batcha was the only non-family person in Raja's businesses. He was the managing director of aquass
astates. He was the lone non-relative of Raja to have been entrusted with the senior-most position in
Raja's companies. All the other directors in Raja's different companies were his brothers, nephews or
nieces.

He was close to Raja and has been associated with him for the past 10 years. He was the main aide
of Raja, who took care of the money. He reportedly handled millions of rupees on behalf of Raja, who
trusted him.

Batcha belonged to a village called Labbaikudikadu, which is a place notorious for its p
 (money-
laundering) operations. If you are asking about his relationship with Raja, he was entrusted with this
job because of his alleged p
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I don't think the death will affect the CBI investigations. As far as my information goes, the CBI has
linked Raja directly to most of the deals. As far as my understanding goes, Batcha's death means that
one of the accused in the case has departed the world before the judgment. I don't think it will affect
the case at all.



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Batcha was the main link, but he was not the only person who could have talked about the money
trail. Raja has a lot of other aides, but Batcha was his trusted man and a link between all these
p
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Well, it is too early to declare it a case of suicide. So, I cannot say if the DMK put pressure on him.

And as far as the pressure from the CBI quarters goes, I don't think that was the case. See, I read in a
Tamil magazine that Batcha was going to turn an approver (witness) in the investigations.

His wife, who is also a senior director in some of Raja's companies, told the magazine in an interview
that her husband would turn an approver. If he was going to turn an approver, why would the CBI put
any kind of pressure on him?

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Batcha was booked on a 4.30 pm flight from Chennai to Delhi [ Images ] to present himself before the
CBI on Thursday morning. I am not really sure it is a suicide. There is definitely a mystery behind his
death.

I cannot say whether someone persuaded him to kill himself or whether he was murdered. Why I am
saying this is because he was a hard nut to crack. He started as a rag-picker and see where he
reached. He was a man of iron will and not soft enough to commit suicide. He was a tough p

operator.

There is a big mystery, because somebody might have thought they could hide some key statements
by killing Batcha since the news was already out that he was turning approver for the CBI.

Most possibly, there is some kind of foul play involved in this case and there will be a series of
theories behind his death. Fortunately, the investigations into his death have been handed over to the
CBI. The Tamil Nadu police cannot investigate this case properly.Ê

T he death of Sajid Batcha, a key aide of former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, came just as the
second round of investigations into the 2G Spectrum scam was all set to focus on the Dawood
Ibrahim link and hawala transactions.Ê

The CBI, coupled with its evidence and inputs from the Intelligence Bureau, had managed to link
some of the transactions to hawala operators who were part of the Dawood gang headquartered in
Pakistan.Ê

The CBI's investigation shows that Batcha, who hails originally from Perambalur (Raja's home town),
had floated a company in Singapore in the year. This company, which came into existence in 2007,
was an arm of his Greenhouse company.
It is said that this arm was set up at a paltry Rs 3 lakh and in the next two to three years it grew into a
Rs 600 crore company.Ê

The investigators suspect that this company was just a front to channelise the money made out of the
2G spectrum scam through hawala networks.

The CBI had managed to establish all the money that came to Raja as part of the 2G scam was
channelised into the Singapore-based company through a well laid out hawala network.

It was further established that Batcha, who himself was well versed with the hawala network, had
played the lead role in channelising the money.

However, the more important aspect is that every hawala network in the country is controlled by the
Dawood gang and the CBI was trying to find as to what extent it had played a part in channelising
money that emerged out of the 2G scam.

The CBI wanted the names of four very crucial persons who helped Batcha route the money
between India and Singapore. These men are alleged to be operatives of the Dawood gang and this
was something that even Batcha wanted to avoid coming out in the open.

Sources say the CBI wanted to grill Batcha further on this on Wednesday. Besides, the investigators
also suspected that a close circle of Raja and other top political leaders were aware of the manner in
which the funds were being routed.

It would have been a major embarrassment for all those involved in this to have their names
associated with members of the D gang and hence the panic button was pressed, sources say.

The hawala angle to the 2G scam has been doing the rounds for quite some time now. The
interrogation of Paramesh Kumar, Raja's nephew, revealed that there were large money transfers
through export orders.Ê