S. Kalyanaraman
‘Cash deal may have link to Batcha’s death’
By PTI
01 Apr 2011 07:29:06 PM IST
NEW DELHI: The CBI today told a Delhi court that the alleged cash transaction between D B Realty and Chennai-based Green House Promoters Pvt Ltd which is under probe in the 2G scam “might have link” to the death of Sadiq Batcha, a close aide of arrested former Telecom Minister A Raja.
“The cash transaction (between DB Realty and Greenhouse Promoters), instance of Batcha’s driver reportedly going missing and his (Batcha) suicide, might have link,” the CBI said in the court of Special CBI Judge O P Saini while seeking extension of custody of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Director Rajiv Agarwal by three days.
Batcha was Managing Director of Green House Promoters which the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate suspected to be a front for Raja.
Agarwal was arrested for his alleged role in 2G spectrum allocation scam in transferring Rs 200 crores to Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd through the bank accounts of Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd.
The CBI said that Agarwal is also linked with Green House Promoters in which Raja’s wife is one of the directors and he is required to be quizzed further regarding the cash transaction between DB Realty and Green House Promoters.
The court extended Agarwal’s CBI custody till April 4 saying, “There is a statement on record that Green House Promoters Pvt Ltd, Chennai, were having close relations with DB Realty Pvt Ltd and the witness also mentions accused Rajiv Agarwal.
“The nature of the case is quite serious, the crime is enormous and the investigation is complicated and tedious and in such a situation, I find that the prayer for further custodial interrogation of the accused Agarwal is justified,” the judge said.
38-year-old Batcha was found dead in mysterious circumstances at his home in South Chennai on March 16 and his wife had claimed that he committed suicide as he was “unable to cope with the pressure” of the probe.
The court also sent Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa’s cousin Asif Balwa, who was arrested with Agarwal, to Tihar Jail till April 15 under judicial custody after the CBI said that he was no more required for interrogation.
The CBI submitted that they have collected material showing huge cash transaction from D B Realty to Green House Promoters.
Opposing CBI’s plea, Agarwal’s counsel Vijay Agarwal argued that the agency only wanted to “extort a confession” from his client.
“If the accused (Rajiv Agarwal) is remanded to police custody, he may be tortured to confess the crime…. The CBI wants the people to commit suicide like Sadiq Batcha,” the lawyer alleged.
He added that the name of Green House Promoters Private Limited is not new and he had already disclosed details about it.
Regarding Rajiv Agarwal’s link with Green House Promoters Pvt Ltd, his counsel said that it was only a business association. He said that his client had already been quizzed at length by the agency before his arrest.
The CBI, however, said that Agarwal was giving “evasive replies”.
“Agarwal has not made a clean breast of it and has given evasive replies. He has also not disclosed the true facts with regard to his association with Green House Promoters Pvt Ltd, Chennai. His custody is further required for sustained custodial interrogation,” the CBI said.
Regarding Asif Balwa, the probe agency said that his further interrogation is no more required and he should be sent to judicial custody as he is highly influential and there is likelihood that he may tamper with evidence and records, if released at this stage of the investigation.
Agarwal and Balwa were directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd. Balwa was also Director of DB Realty Pvt Ltd (a partner of Dynamic Realty).
Agarwal and Asif were arrested on March 29 in the 2G spectrum case after CBI had conducted searches at the premises of Dynamic Realty, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd and Cineyug films Pvt Ltd in Mumbai and claimed to have seized some documents.
Those arrested in the case include former Telecom Minister Raja, his personal aide R K Chandolia, former Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura, besides Shahid Usman Balwa.
Raja along with Behura and Chandolia were arrested by the CBI on February 2 and Shahid Balwa was arrested from Mumbai on February 8. They are presently in judicial custody.
http://expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=261735
The Dead Sadiq Batcha’s Tell-Tale Decomposed Deposition!
Mar 23 2011 |
Sadiq Batcha – a key witness in the Rs.1.76 lakh-crore 2G Spectrum scam – and a former aide of jailed Union Telecom Minister A. Raja – died mysteriously and unnaturally March 16 2011.
The facts:
n Batcha was “brought in dead” at the Apollo Hospitals March 16 2011 a little after 1 pm by his wife Rekha Bhanu. n The post mortem was conducted a little later at the Government Royappettah Hospital by Dr V Dekal. n The doctor claimed that he had resigned March on 3 2011 itself to contest the ensuing Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections as an ‘independent candidate’. He had not been relieved by the state government owing to shortage of medical personnel, he added. n The doctor’s report says the victim Batcha died of asphyxia. n While the final report is awaited, there is a total lack of clarity about the photographic evidence of the body’s wounds as neither the police nor the doctor have indicated clearly as to who recorded the wounds on the body visible to the naked eye and whether such a recording is available for independent examination at all. Worse, Dekal has almost cleared the whole thing by referring to his ‘acute sense of smelling’ to indicate near total absence of foul play. n World famous forensic scientist and Padma Bhooshan award winner Professor P Chandra Sekharan’s observations in the matter raise several suspicions – given side by side in separate fonts. While the scientific issues are the very words of the veteran scientist, the footnotes and queries [given in different fonts for easy identification] are mine.
I. Asphyxia can be termed as the cause of death in both ‘suicidal hanging’ or ‘homicidal strangulation’.
In other words, Batcha could have been murdered in cold blood and the stuff made to look like hanging…
II. The positioning of the ligature mark in a hanging or strangulation is important to differentiate between the two. While a hung body will carry its fatal scar very close to the chin with odd gaps, a strangulation victim’s killer ligature will be continuous and found circling more or less the middle of the neck. Whether the individual hanged himself or his body was hung after death can be ascertained by histopathological examination of the tissues from ligature.
Are the police department and/or Dr Dekal – the final diagnosis surgeon in possession of the all important notes on the positioning of the ligature(s)? Since the whole thing would have been visible to the naked eye, why were the details not made available to the press and the public with photographic evidence to expel all doubts?
III. In the case of strangulation ligature, tell-tale signs of the victim’s struggle to stay alive in the form of nail marks around the rope to pry the killer rope/string/wire away would be clearly visible and their presence on the cadaver has to be clearly described in writing backed by photographic evidence. Rules governing conduction of post mortem and the recording of evidence during the endeavour are very specific. The body should be photographed from all angles with close up photographs to visually record all wounds – fatal or otherwise. Such visuals must be corroborated by notes made during the conduction of the autopsy.
Are the police personnel or Dr Dekal in possession of such tell-tale photographs corroborated by recorded notings during the autopsy? And more importantly, if getting relieved is so important for Dr Dekal, why is he not getting relieved by showing the all important photographs to all those who are inquisitive, citing his satisfactory performance of duties as per the statutory requirements, getting relieved immediately to contest the elections – if doing so is so important?
IV. In a case of suspected hanging, examination of the ‘scene of occurrence’ is vital. The position of the body and the examined upturned/askew piece of furniture/box kicked by a victim for the presence of his footprints have to be correctly recorded visually and in writing to establish a suicide beyond any doubt. If a body is hung after death, presence of footprints of the relevant fabricators of evidence will give the game away. Possibilities of poisoning can be ascertained only by chemical examination and not by smell as claimed by the forensic surgeon in the case of Batcha since more than 18 percent of human beings cannot detect the presence of something so distinct as cyanide that carries the sweet smell of almonds.
Since Rekha Bhanu removed the body from the scene of occurrence, the presence of forensic evidence has been almost completely ruled out or perhaps not recorded at all. One also does not know what value the evidence gathered from the scene of crime would have after being so systematically tampered with. And meddling with vital clues to a suspicious death can entail police’s arresting the most innocent transgressors for murder and tried leaving the matter to the courts’ final decisions. Therefore, Rekha Bhanu can even be arrested or perhaps seriously questioned for openly tampering with the evidence. This has not been done…nor is it likely to be done.
In a nutshell, the whole thing reeks of a massive cover up.
Batcha had come into immense wealth after having been nearly bankrupt hardly a decade ago only after his ‘friendship’ with Raja.
The method to earn so much sans corruption after having been the sidekick of a minister now in a prison for alleged graft on the eve of elections in Tamil Nadu that could make or mar the prime suspects in the case – the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is too pat.
The post mortem doctor cannot hope to win as an independent candidate. So why so suddenly resign after such a matter and why should the doctor contest an election he is bound to lose?
And there are more holes in the suicide theory of Batcha than Swiss cheese.
Yet, the government is strangely going out of its way to prevent meaningful probes.
Why is Chennai city police commissioner T Rajendran ‘consistently ruling out foul play in this matter of plain suicide’?
The victim was part of a Rs.1.76 lakh crore scam – the obvious suspect beneficiaries include Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his near and dear.
Significantly Karunanidhi holds the home portfolio and therefore controls the state police!
Significantly, Chief Minister Karunanidhi has faulted the Election Commission for needlessly transferring ‘capable’ police officials.
So the unanswered questions include – who ‘needed’ which ‘capable’ officials and why?
I wrote a blog in May last year.
The link:
http://tsvhari.sulekha.com/blog/post/2010/05/the-way-the-cookie-crumbles-pardon-the-gaffe-xii.htm
Among other things, I accused Chennai police commissioner Rajendran and the freshly transferred Director General of Police Letika Saran of various omissions and commissions that included the ‘fixing’ of a murder case.
In November 2008, one Dr S Saravanan, former Chairman and Managing Director of the state government undertaking Tamil Nadu Minerals [TAMIN], his wife Kasturi and a servant maid were brutally killed with slit necks.
Link:
Batcha’s driver fled with Rs 6 crore, wife tells cops
Posted On: 24 Mar, 2011
CHENNAI: Sadiq Batcha’s driver had escaped with Rs 6 crore from his car last August, his widow Reha Banu told cops investigating the suicide of A Raja’s aide on Wednesday, according to police sources.
Police, questioning several people as part of the probe into the death of Batcha, quoted Reha Banu as saying that Batcha, who was found dead on March 16, was upset after his driver disappeared with the money but preferred not to file a police complaint.
The investigation has revealed that Batcha spoke to a friend called Subbudu (Subramanian) 40 times on the day before he allegedly took his life. Subramanian is a partner in Sadiq Real Estate Agency based in Perambalur, Raja’s hometown.
A Mylapore police district officer said: “We have been instructed not to probe the 2G spectrum case. We have been told to only probe Batcha’s suicide.”
Reha Banu appeared upset during the questioning, police said. They also quoted her as saying that the money he had dreamt of making claimed his life. “Driver Salim was very loyal initially and Batcha took him along on business trips. But when Batcha left his briefcase containing Rs 6 crore in his car and came home, Salim took it and never returned. I insisted that he file a police complaint but Batcha ignored it as the driver belonged to his hometown Lebbai Kudi Kadu near Perambalur,” Reha Banu was quoted as saying by the police.
Another police officer, assigned to look into Batcha’s mobile call records, said, “Batcha spoke to his close friend Subramanian Subbudu at least 40 times on March 15, a day before his suicide. He even mentioned Subbudu in his suicide note, which was found in his room on March 16.”
Subramanian had also been questioned by the CBI in connection with the 2G spectrum scam case. “Subramanian and Batcha jointly started Sadiq Real Estate Agency on Elambalur Road in Perambalur. Batcha later moved to Chennai and started Green House Promoters and made Raja’s wife and a few others directors of the company,” the officer said.
http://www.click2reach.in/view-news.php?id=6638
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2011
Breaking news: Sadiq batcha’s shirt missing!
Sathik Batcha case controversy: The case of the missing shirt! Met a senior IPS officer in Chennai who said that Sathick Batcha’s shirt at the time of his death is missing. This is because if he hung himself the shirt would have a streak of saliva on it, which is typical in a suicide hanging. He thinks the shirt is missing because it had no saliva on it. His inference is that Batcha was killed and then hung to make it look like a suicide. (tweet message )
I wonder whether it is the prerogative of the police to reveal what it thinks suits them and the powers or is the TOI reporter so dumb that he is also playing in their orchestrated plants? If the police are willing to reveal so much, they ought to reveal the circumstances which made them arrive so late, how come suicide note planted so late etc, or is the TOI reporter PAID so that he does not ask the difficult questions. How come this news are coming only to TOI before hand. Why is Arnab not covering Sadiq mystery, except for a few minutes of lip service on one news-hour. This is not how he dealt with Aurushi.
There is yet another tweet which says that Sadiq is in East Asia. There is another one which interestingly points out how Sadiq Batcha would mention rebirth, when he is a Muslim- clearly implying that the suicide note was a badly cooked meal.
Now why is Times of India buying the selective and convenient leaks by the police? Now Police claims Sadiq Batcha spoke last to his friend Dinesh from perambalur , who instead claims Sadiq asked him innocently why is he being targeted when he did no wrong?. First of all there is prima facie evidence that Sadiq has much to hide and has more than erred and on case the man was on his own death trip, he would not be lying . So this may itself be a proof that he was done away rather than suicide!
If you haven’t noticed, there is a clear attempt to create a melo drama out of this murder by making it seem he died, innocent and so is Raja but poor, were hounded and hence the extreme step. The family is sure in this and one of them may be a minister in the next cabinet. You can expect Sadiq Batcha’s wife coming to DMK podiums in this election along with Dinesh. This may sound like a crude joke, but I know this man very well. His scripts are very predictable.
http://www.chennaitvnews.com/2011/03/breaking-news-sadiq-batchas-shirt.html
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