DMK's another family Business - Money Laundering
Trouble mounts for the DMK. The Enforcement Directorate has sent a notice to Cineyug Pvt Ltd, which facilitated the transfer of Rs 214 crore to Chennai-based Kalaignar TV, owned by Karunanidhi’s family, on behalf of Mumbai-based DB Realty.
“The notice has been sent under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to the event management firm seeking details of the banking transactions of the company and the income tax return documents,” official sources said.
The ED, sources said, suspects that the Rs 214 crore transferred to Kalaignar TV is part of the proceeds of the crime relating to the alleged fraud in the controversial award of the licences for 2G spectrum to dubious companies, including Swan Telecom.
Once the documents of the Cineyug are examined, the agency may seek attachment proceedings for the suspected bribe money, the sources said.
Cineyug started receiving funds from Kusegaon Realty, another firm owned by DB Realty’s Shahid Balwa, after the allotment of the spectrum to various companies in January 2008 and Cineyug transferred the money to Kalaignar TV.
After the funds were transferred to Cineyug by Kusegaon Realty, an agreement for transfer of funds between the two companies was reached post facto.
However, following the resignation of former Telecom Minister A Raja in November 2010, the Kalaignar TV returned the money to Cineyug and the DMK-owned channel started claiming that the money was received as an unsecured loan.
The ED, however, has inputs that the money is yet to reach Kusegaon Realty, the origin point of the movement of the funds suspected to be bribe money moved as a quid pro quo for the spectrum licences to Swan Telecom promoted by Balwa.