Team News Riveting
Chennai, December 22
Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 45 acres of land in Coimbatore that belongs to a company linked for DMK Member of Parliament and former Union Minister A Raja under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering act (PMLA).
In a statement, ED said that the land worth Rs 55 crore was purchased from the bribe money received from one of the largest real estate companies for environmental clearance when Raja was the Union Minister of Environment and Forest during the period 2004-2007.
The real estate firm, based in Gurugram and listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), was granted the environmental clearance in 2007. Raja allegedly received a kickback from the company in the garb of land commission income in the hands of one Benami company of A Raja.
ED said that Raja incorporated the company in the same year 2007 in the name of his family members and his close family friend, “with the sole objective of using it as a vehicle to park the proceeds of crime”.
The said company was never engaged in any business activity since inception and the entire money received in the company was quid pro quo from the real estate deal and was used for acquiring land in Coimbatore, the release from ED said.
The money laundering case stems from an earlier CBI complaint against Raja, in which the latter agency filed a chargesheet in August before a special court in Chennai.
The CBI had charged Raja for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 5.53 crore during his tenure as the Union environment minister in the UPA government.
