2G scam: Here's what Sadiq Batcha shared with Enforcement Directorate

Ex-Telecom Minister A Raja's aide Sadiq Batcha was a man who knew too much. And he was willing to tell all. He shared incriminating information with the Enforcement Directorate in two different statements, the last on February 21, 2011 about the 2G scam. Three weeks after giving his statements, Batcha was found dead.

India Today has accessed a copy of the statement.

Batcha told the ED that Vinod Goenka and Shahid Balwa of Swan Telecom had met DMK chief MK Stalin, then deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu, at his residence one year ago (the statement to the ED was given on February 2011). Batcha also told the ED that Raja too was present at this meeting.

He also said "that they met them once in Mumbai and two or three times in Chennai".

It was this statement that turned the needle of suspicion on other members of the DMK for the first time in the 2G probe. Till now, the focus was on A Raja, Kanimozhi and Dayanidhi Maran.

A month later, Batcha was dead. He allegedly committed suicide at his Chennai residence in 2011 in what was widely believed to be murder.

The CBI was asked to probe, but the conclusions it arrived at was that it was a suicide. The note Batcha left behind was in his own handwriting, the CBI said.

Interestingly, Batcha had offered to turn a CBI witness. Batcha was a director of Greenhouse Promoters, whose other directors were Raja's wife and cousins.

Surprisingly, five years later, a resident of Trichy, Prabhakaran, claimed that he killed Batcha. He said he did it with the aide of an IPS officer Jaffer Sait and Parmesh Kumar, a close relative of Raja.

He claimed Batcha was killed after he gave CBI "vital information" against Raja in the 2G case.

"Jaffer Sait helped to strangulate Batcha with a towel, Paramesh Kumar pressed his knee on Sadiq's neck while I was holding his legs. Later, it was Paramesh Kumar and his aides who hanged the body in Batcha's house to make it look like a suicide," he claimed at a press conference. Prabhakaran went missing last year.

In his judgment, Justice OP Saini wrote, "In August this year, a Dr. Amaidhy, a senior citizen from Chennai, alleged that investigation of the instant case was not conducted in a fair manner. He also alleged that the murder of Sadiq Batcha was also not investigated in a fair manner. He also stated that Sh. Sadiq Batcha was willing to become an approver in the instant case and that is why he was killed. However, this application was also found to be full of unfounded allegations. This application was also dismissed."

Batcha was not alone in fearing for his life. His driver, Krishnamoorthy, too had deposed before the court and expressed apprehension that he would be killed. He told the judge that he would often ferry cash from Mumbai to Chennai and was beaten up by Batcha on one occasion when a bag of cash was found missing.