Enforcement Directorate is all set to chargesheet DMK Chief Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi under Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA) on charges that she received Rs 214 crore as a 2G scam kickback.
Sources said the chargesheet is expected to be filed in the third week of July. The charges will have stringent provisions of imprisonment up to seven years and confiscation of the properties to the value of the bribe amount and fines.
The charges under PMlA is based on the CBI’s chargesheet against Kanimozhi in the 2G Special Court, where she was accused of receiving a bribe of Rs 214 crore from companies linked to accused Swan Telecom. Apart from Kanimozhi, Kalaignar TV channel’s managing director Saradkumar too will be chargesheeted along with the bribe givers, said sources.
The kickback was routed in 2008-2009 to Kalaignar TV in installments from Kusegaon Vegetables and Cineyug, two firms linked to 2G accused Shahid Balwa. After filing the charge sheet, Enforcement Directorate has to submit the list of properties for confiscation to recover the kickback of Rs 214 crore. It is learnt that the Kalaignar TV would also figure in the list of the accused in the charge sheet and the TV channels’ properties would also be include in the confiscation list.
The move of Enforcement Directorate under the Finance Ministry comes after two years of the CBI charge sheet against Kanimozhi and others in May 2011.
Till DMK’s exit in March 2013 from the UPA Government, the Enforcement Directorate under Revenue Department was headed by Minister of State SS Palanimanickam of DMK. There were allegations that the chargesheet under PMlA against Kanimozhi was delayed due to the compulsions of coalition politics in UPA. Enforcement Directorate as well as Income Tax Department faced Supreme Court’s criticism on several occasions for the sluggish probe by the CBI.
In the 2G trial court, Kanimozhi and Saradkumar had argued that the amount was not a kickback in the telecom deals and it was a regular business transaction. The court had rejected this argument.
The Income Tax department in its presentation before the JPC said that the TV channel had returned the money immediately after the main accused and former telecom minister A Raja was summoned by CBI in December 2010.
The Income Tax said that for returning the money the TV channel raised funds from companies owned by BCCI Chief and India Cements owner N Sreenivasan and liquor baron Vijay Mallya. The funds were also routed through 18 Kolkata based shell companies, according the deposition of Income Tax top officials.