Chennai, August 11
In a move that may give a new turn to the Tansi land deal case in which Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was convicted, the Tamil Nadu police has sought permission of a special court to further investigate another related case involving purchase of government owned Tansi property by R.R. Industries.
Police sources said the Crime Branch had found some flaws in fixation of guideline value of the properties and hence the need had arisen for a further probe into the deal involving the private firm.
Jayalalithaa and her friend Sasikala were convicted in a case in which the Tansi land was allegedly undervalued while being sold to Jaya Publications and Sasi Enterprises in which both were partners, causing a loss to the government.
The police move gains significance following reports that retired Deputy Inspector-General of Registration D. Thangavelu, in a letter to the state government, had stated that he had over-valued the property purchased by R.R. Industries and the two companies which were owned by Jayalalithaa and Sasikala.
Mr Thangavelu is understood to have stated that he had mistakenly taken the guideline value of a property falling under Adyar circle, while the Tansi land actually fell under Alandur circle, which had a lower guideline value.
The Crime Branch-CID had allegedly conducted the investigation on the basis of the guideline value for Adyar circle.
On October 9 last year, Special Judge P. Anbazhagan had found Jayalalithaa guilty of criminal conspiracy and undervaluation of the property causing loss to the government to the tune of over Rs 4 crore and convicted her.
She was sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and two years’ RI in the two cases, which led to her being debarred from contesting the May 10 Assembly poll.
Jayalalithaa’s appeals in the Madras High Court against her conviction is likely to be heard next week.
Meanwhile, Ms Jayalalithaa today categorically denied that she had any connection whatsoever with the multicrore UTI scam.
Reacting to reports in a section of the press, linking her in the UTI scam, Ms Jayalalithaa, in a statement here, said the news item not only consisted of fabricated lies but was also mischievous in nature and untrue in content.
PTI, UNI
