CBI starts Batcha death probe

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A day after the CBI registered a case in the death of Sadiq Batcha, a close aide of arrested former communications and IT minister A. Raja, a team of the agency’s officials on Wednesday searched the businessman’s house.

Batcha, who was found hanging in his house in Teynampet on March 16, had been under the scanner of investigating agencies for his alleged role in the 2G scam. He had also been question by the CBI in connection with the swindle.

A team of around 10 CBI officials arrived at Batcha’s house at around noon on Wednesday and left at 6 pm. The CBI’s action comes after the Supreme Court’s direction to the government on Monday to issue a notification within three days to hand over the investigation of Batcha’s death to the Agency.

Batcha wife, Rehna Bhanu, had said in her statement that he had committed suicide as he was unable to cope with the pressure of the probe and the media attention. The CBI and ED had searched his offices and home in December.

In its chargesheet filed on April 2, the CBI had alleged that the money connected with the scam had been funnelled through Batcha’s company. It was suspected that the money travelled through Batcha’s firm to various companies controlled by DMK bigwigs. The CBI, in its chargesheet had stated that the fund flow to Kalaignar TV, in which chief minister M. Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu Ammal and daughter and MP Kanimozhi are shareholders, is under scrutiny.

The agency had said `200 crore connected with the 2G scam had travelled from a partnership firm of Shahid Usman Balwa, an accused in the case, to Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd.