2G whodunit: Tavera with Rs 4 crore cash stolen,detective called in

A Tavera,the CBI says,was used to carry 23 boxes from Anna Arivalayam,headquarters of the DMK and Kalaignar TV office,to a building in nearby Taylors Road. The agency says the Tavera was hired by Greenhouse Promoters to ferry officials of DB Realty Ltd.

What the CBI is still trying to establish is whether these boxes had any direct link to a Rs 200-crore money trail it has been tracking in the case.

From statements made under Section 161 of CrPC by the driver,a detective called Varatharaj and Greenhouse Promoters business advisor Kevin Amritraj,the CBI has been able to piece together an intriguing account,one that links Sadhick Batcha,DB Realty and former telecom minister A Raja.

Batcha,who allegedly committed suicide last month,was the MD of Greenhouse Promoters while Raja’s wife and relatives were among its directors.

In 2009,Amritraj hired the driver to ferry guests visiting Chennai. One frequent visitor was DB Realty’s Ashraf who,according to Amritraj,“transferred huge cash through some vehicle from some place to another place in Chennai during 2009”.

Around 4.30 pm on May 10,2009,the driver took Ashraf and other visitors to Anna Arivalayam and from there,they made four trips to Poonamallee High Road-Taylors Road Junction 1st Building with some boxes.

In the first three trips,they carried and unloaded seven,four and eight boxes respectively at the building. According to the driver,the fourth trip was made with four boxes but only “three were unloaded since one was to be given to someone else”.

Ashraf and three others went inside the building. When no one came to collect the fourth box for nearly 90 minutes,the driver went to the toilet. It is then that the Tavera went missing,triggering panic and leading to the “torture” of the driver.

“There was cash of Rs 4 crore in this vehicle… I could interpret this from the discussion of Ashraf with his Bombay boss,most likely Rajiv Agarwal (DB Realty Group official now in jail)… I was asked to keep custody of the driver till further orders by DB Group officials and Arivalayam manager,” Amritraj said in his statement.

The driver was taken to different places in Chennai,handed over to police who “tortured and frightened him and asked him to tell whereabouts of the vehicle and the box”. Later,Amritraj took him to Kilpauk police station where he was asked to lodge a theft report on May 13. He was freed the same day.

Amritraj then took the driver to Agarwal,who had come from Mumbai,and gave him Rs 4 lakh against the cost of the vehicle. When the Tavera was recovered from Moolakadai in Outer Chennai 25 days later,Amritraj made the driver return the money.

According to the CBI,Amritraj still had his suspicions and hired detective Varatharaj to spy on the driver and his brother,also a driver. The detective was told to check whether there had been any change in their living standards. Though both drivers earned only Rs 4,000 per month each,they had stopped working.

After trailing them for three months,Varatharaj found that the driver’s brother had four cars and had started a real estate business. The detective could not trace the box.

Incidentally,after Batcha’s alleged suicide,his wife told police that his driver had escaped with Rs 6 crore from his car in August 2009.