The audacity of greed

“There is sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.” -Mahatma Gandhi

Pattinathar, the saint, said you don’t even take a broken needle on the way to cemetery. But none of these wise words penetrate the conscience of human society.

The evil effect of corruption on society is pointed out by the Supreme Court in the case of State Of Maharashtra Tr.C.B.I vs Balakrishna Dattatrya Kumbhar

“Corruption is not only a punishable offence but also undermines human rights, indirectly violating them, and systematic corruption, is a human rights’ violation in itself, as it leads to systematic economic crimes.”

Justice T.Cunha, who sentenced Jayalalitha to four years imprisonment, observed in his judgment …  “A-1 is occupying a high position in the Government of State of Tamil Nadu. It is often observed “just as those at high places behave, so others below”. If persons holding higher positions indulge in corruption, not only those below get encouraged to indulge in corruption, but also the person holding higher position will not be in a position to exact honesty from them or to take action against delinquent officials.”

The ADMK slaves who were so confident that their all powerful ‘Amma, the invincible’ would come out unscathing were in for a deep shock.  Slowly coming out of the shock, their only argument is Karunanidhi honest ?

It is true Karunanidhi and DMK are corrupt.   But what prevented Jayalalitha from launching corruption cases and taking them to its logical conclusion both during her tenure in 2001 and 2011 ?  The reason Jayalalitha failed to install special courts and successfully prosecuting them is not only that she is fighting a battery of corruption cases on her own, but due to the fact that Jayalalitha’s only intention, now and forever is loot, loot and loot.

Though the DMK and the ADMK arise from the same toxic stew, there is a mild difference between them. When the DMK is in power, factories are established. Roads are laid. Lakes and ponds are cleaned. New development plans are created. From such activities Karunanidhi’s various families get commission. If the government spends 100 rupees, 70 will reach the public.

But in Jayalalitha’s administration, it is nothing but a colossal failure.   Take her present tenure as an example.    In the past three years of Jaya rule, not even a single project has taken of in Tamil Nadu.   Except the humongous growth of TASMAC, the state’s liquour outlet, nothing has ever grown.   The administration has seen nothing but frequent shuffle in the ministry and bureaucracy.    For such an impotent administration there are numerous ministers, secretaries, police officers, etc.

It is really a very sorry state of affairs, that a politician who stands convicted by a trial court for corruption charges after a prolonged 18 years, and who is out on bail is still running the administration in Tamil Nadu.  Senior bureaucrats without shame bow before this convict and get instructions
People who are in the know of things have a wide variety of tales about this government.  The modus operandi adopted by Amma for collection is thus.  Every Minister depending on his portfolio is fixed a weekly target.   They have to collect their target and handover the same in a specified bungalow in Chennai’s East Coast Road.    The entire collection amounts should be in new currencies and the serial number of the first and the last note should be mentioned in a slip and placed on top of the bundle.   The respective ministers would get 30% of the total collection and the share should only be collected after paying the amount in total and not before.   Later the money is transferred to several auditors who in turn would launder the money through hawala routes.

Let us take one area where Jayalalitha rakes in the moolah.  The Tamil Nadu government purchases about 3000 MW of power from private power manufacturers every day.  The cost of a unit ranges between Rs.10.50 to Rs.12.   The grapevine has it that the power minister Natham R Viswanathan gets 20 paise per unit as commission and the TANGEDCO Chairman Gnanadesikan IAS gets 0.2 paise per unit for such power purchases.   On a rough calculation Gnanadesikan makes Rs.14.40 lakhs per day and Natham makes 1.44 crore a day.   Of course Jayalalitha will get a lion’s share from this.

To cite another example we can take the case of TASMAC.  Anyone who passes through a TASMAC outlet can see the crowd and the thriving sales.   In the recent two months, the prices of IMFL liquor has gone up twice.  Still, there were news items that sales on Diwali has dipped when compared to previous year.  Surprising ?  Indeed.

Barring elite shops, all the TASMAC outlets have a bar attached.    Sources say Natham Viswanathan has devised an innovative way to make a quick  buck.   Instead of Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) placing indents to the liquor manufacturers, the distilleries will send the stocks directly to the bar and receive payment.   70% of the tax revenue to be received by the government through this sales will straight go to Natham Viswanathan’s pocket.   One Gopi, who is the brother-in-law of Natham Viswanathan is taking care of this racket.  This is being done only in select outlets.    Sources in Secretariat say that the government’s finance department is on and off raising alarms about the dip in sales of TASMAC, for it is the only cash cow for the state.

One may naturally wonder, what would Jayalalitha and Sasikala would be doing with this unimaginable quantities of money. Let us see.

Judge Cunha who nailed Jayalalitha in the assets case mentions in his judgment that Jayalalitha after coming to power in 1991, floated several firms to launder money, in the name of A.2 Sasikala, A.3 Ilavarasi and A.4 Sudakaran.

Evidences now suggest that Jayalalitha has proved to be incorrigible.    She has not even for a moment halted her corrupt activities.

One such benami firm floated by Jayalalitha is a firm Hot Wheels Engineering Private Limited.   The firm was created on 5th September 2005.    It is not clear who were the first set of Directors in the firm when it was created.

However,  subsequent to Sasikala’s expulsion in December 2011, two individuals were appointed as directors.  One is Cho Ramaswamy, a noted political critic, journalist, lawyer, actor, writer, moralist, etc.   Cho is vociferous in his arguments for probity in public life etc.      But, time has proved that he has been cleverly maintaining a camouflage.  He also was a Director in the Midas Distilleries and Breweries during this period.

Immediately after the expulsion of Sasikala and the entire group of Mannargudi Mafia as they are popularly known, Cho Srinivasan Ramasamy was inducted as Director in several firms. He has signed the annual reports of several firms, as per the documents available with the Registrar of Companies.   Apart from Cho Ramasamy, the second Director in the firm is Poonkundran.     Poonkundran’s father is a poet named Sankaralingam.    They belong to Soorakottai in Thiruvarur District.   His father use to write statements for Jayalalitha and write articles in Namathu MGR, an ADMK mouth piece.      Subsequently, Sankaralingam was driven out of Poes Garden by the bandit sisters and Poonkundran replaced his father.

Standing far right is the great entrepreneur Poonkundran, who is a Director in several firms.

At present Poonkundran is Jayalalitha’s personal attender.  His job is to open letters and place it on the Jayalalitha’s table and move away signed papers.      He was also a Director in the Hot Wheels Engineering Private Limited along with Cho Ramaswamy.    But, after the re-entry of Mannargudi Mafia into Poes Garden, Cho Ramaswamy was kicked out of all the companies.

The present Directors of this Hot Wheels Engineering Company Private limited makes a curious study.    One is Dr. K.S.Sivakumar and the other is Karthikeyan Kaliyaperumal.      Sasikala’s elder brother Sundaravadhanam has two daugthers.   One is Prabavathi and the other is Anuradha.    Anuradha has married TTV Dinakaran a former ADMK MP.    And Dr.K.S.Sivakumar is the one who married the other daughter Prabavathi.

Sasikala and Ilavarasi

Accused No.3 in the assets case is Ilavarasi.    Ilavarasi is Sasikala’s brother Jayaraman’s wife.     Jayaraman died due to electric shock while working in Jayalalitha’s Hyderabad garden.  Ever since he died, Ilavarasi and his kids are squatting in Poes Garden.     Ilavarasi has two daughters and a son.   One is Shakeela Jayaraman. Another is Krishnapriya Jayaraman. They are married to Karthikeyan and Rajarajan, respectively. Apart from this, Ilavarasi has a son named Vivek Jayaraman. He currently maintains the accounts in Poes Garden.

Prabavathy Sivakumar couple

Ilavarasi’s daughters and son

In July 2014, the name of the firm Hot Wheels Engineering was changed to Jazz cinemas in an Extraordinary General Body Meeting.  Let us see the background.

Jazz cinema was originally founded by film producer Patham Chandh Pothra and Shanmugam. Why did the Mannargudi Mafia suddenly evince interest in cinema business may puzzle you.

The Mumbai based Phoneix Mills entered into a joint venture and promoted a mall at Velacherry in Chennai.  This mall was opened in January 2013.    The mall had 11 screens in it.   Though the mall was open for public in January 2013, the 11 theaters inside the mall were not opened to public and were opened only in March 2014.  The reason for this unusual delay for more than one year is surprising.       The city police refused to give No Objection Certificate citing lack of safety features.     To understand the unusual delay of opening the theaters and the associated financial loss, we have to look into a have to look to a meeting held at Old No: 19-20/12 New No: 38/12, Venkatraman Street, Chennai, T.Nagar, , at 10:30 on the morning of 17 July 2014.

This meeting was the Extraordinary General Body Meeting of Hot Wheels Engineering. It was presided over by V.K.Sasikala. It is pertinent to mention that both have been found guilty in Jayalalitha’s disproportionate assets case.

In that meeting, it was decided that as the owners of Hot Wheels and lessees, the two accused would invest in Theaters, Video Game Parlors, Recording Studios, Multiplexes and Game Arcades.

According to sources, earlier, Sathyam cinemas had entered into an agreement to buy the 11 screens that were about to come up in Phoenix malls.

Sathyam Cinemas had entered into an agreement at an early stage with the Phoenix mall to buy space for the 11 theaters. As the mall was nearing completion, the Mannargudi Mafia headed by Sasikala threatened the Sathyam group to part with the ownership of the 11 screens.   But, the Sathyam group, who are in the movie business for decades refused to budge.   An enraged Sasikala directed City Police Commissioner S.George IPS to bring them in line.    S.George, who is known to be subservient to his ruling masters, obliged.  It was George who was inoordinately delaying the issuance of NOC for the commencement of theaters.    Even after the inordinate delay the Sathyam owners had refused to budge.   George, adopted the perennial police trick.    Sathyam Group Director Swaroop Reddy and Sujai Anand Reddy were booked in a case of land grab by the Anti Land Grab Cell of Chennai City Police.    The Hindu               Times of India                       The New Indian Express

Sujai Anand Reddy was arrested and Swaroop Reddy went absconding.   The writing on the wall was clear for the Sathyam Group.  Either sell or rot in jail.   They gave up.   This is how Sasikala was able to experiment her entrepreneurial skills in movie business.

Is it not astonishing to believe that a person who is awaiting judgment in an all important criminal case in which she is an accused would chair a board meeting to usurp a prime property  ?  Such is the audacity of greed.

Subsequent to the sale, the 11 screens in the Phoenix mall were leased out to Sathyam cinemas.

The temerity of the queens of booty to continue to amass illegal wealth is based on the short memory of TN public and their justified assessment about the weak opposition who don’t have any moral ground to raise corruption issue.   The sorry state of the opposition parties in Tamil Nadu is too palpable.   While on the one hand the principal opposition DMK is grappling with its own corruption charges, the national party BJP is running like a headless chicken.   Most of the DMK ministers are facing corruption charges in various courts in Tamil Nadu.   Another opposition party PMK ‘s heir apparent Anbumani Ramadoss is facing two criminal cases in a Delhi CBI Court.

The left are still groping in the dark.    With literally no opposition in the state, there is no surprise that the queens of booty continue to loot the state impudence.