CBI to check veracity of Kalaignar TV claims

NEW DELHI: The CBI will start recording statements of the officials of four companies from which Kalaignar TV is believed to have raised funds to pay back a `200 crore ‘loan’ it claims to have taken from Cineyug Films Private Limited (a DB Group controlled company).According to CBI officials, Kalaignar TV, controlled by DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s family, had claimed that it had raised `96 crore through advertisements from four companies. The company says it later used the money to repay a `200 crore-loan from Cineyug. The CBI now wants to record the statements of the officials from these companies to verify Kalaignar TV’s claims.A top CBI official said: “Our probe has revealed that Kalaignar TV took a loan from these four companies to repay `200 to DB Group. But this was after the CBI registered its first FIR in the 2G spectrum case on October 21, 2010. Though there is no criminality on the part of these four companies (as they are not linked to any telecom company), we need to examine the grounds on which the money was given to Kalaignar TV.”The CBI is likely to make the officials witnesses in its case against Kalaignar TV shareholders, MK Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar as well as against the promoters of the DB Group controlled Swan Telecom Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka. All the accused are presently in jail for their alleged roles in the 2G scam.The CBI says that it has managed to establish that DB Group promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, “had paid Kalaignar TV”, “in lieu of license and spectrums given to Swan Telecom by then minister A Raja.”CBI officials also claimed that Swan, controlled by DB group, used intermediary companies to transfer `200 crores, in small amounts over a period of time to Kalaignar TV. However, after the CBI first made contact with Raja in December 2010, Kalaignar TV started repaying the amounts through the same set of companies and claimed it to be a ‘loan’.The agency, however, had done a detailed investigation on the shareholding and financial structures of these companies and had established that the `200 crores did not fit into the category of ‘loan’ transactions, as claimed by the accused. It had alleged that it was a ‘cover-up’ operation launched after the agency started questioning Raja.