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Batcha's death: SC to hear plea for CBI probe

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Supreme Court will on Thursday hear an application seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death of Sadiq Batcha, who had been questioned by the investigating agency in the 2G spectrum scam.

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An apex court bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly said it would hear the matter after lunch. This was after senior counsel Prashant Bhushan told the court that he was ready with the application seeking a CBI probe into Batcha's suicide.

Tamil Nadu govt willing to ask for CBI probe

However, Bhushan said he would wait as Tamil Nadu government has indicated its willingness to ask the CBI to probe Batcha's suicide.

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Bhushan said this in the beginning of the hearing of a petition by Subramanian Swamy seeking cancellation of 2G licences to a telecom operator. Swamy has alleged that these licenses were given in violation of then prevailing rules and the failure of telecom operators in meeting their roll out obligations.

Batcha, a close associate of former union communications minister A. Raja, was found hanging in his home Wednesday. He was the founder of Green Home Promoters, a real estate company.

The Green House Promoters, started with an equity base of Rs.1 lakh in 2004, grew to over a Rs.600 crore revenue company within a short time - an aspect under the CBI scanner.

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The CBI questioned him four times between Jan 29 and Feb 24 to know where the huge amounts of money generated in the spectrum saga went.

Jayalalithaa's comments

Tamil Nadu's main opposition AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa in a statement said a similar fate could await other key witnesses in the 2G scam investigations.

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"The death under mysterious circumstances of Sadiq Batcha, a close associate of Andimuthu Raja, who was the main custodian of the former Union Telecom Minister's ill-gotten gains from the infamous 2-G Spectrum scam, does not come as a surprise to people who know the DMK's style of internal justice," she said in a statement.

"Some years ago, we saw Stalin's close associate and known benami, Anna Nagar Ramesh and his entire family "committing suicide". The buzz at that time was that Ramesh's conscience was pricking him and he was contemplating coming clean. Now, it is the turn of Sadiq Batcha!," it added.





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