Batcha

Chennai, March 17: The Enforcement Directorate’s declaration before the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it was close to mapping the foreign money trail in the 2G scam case could have prompted Sadhick Batcha to commit suicide, family sources said.

Batcha, 44, had told a business associate that if the directorate found out about the money stashed abroad he could be in trouble, a close relative waiting at the Government Royapettah Hosptial to receive his body after the post-mortem today said.

A close associate of former telecom minister A. Raja now in jail in the 2G case, Batcha is believed to have used hawala contacts to transfer much of the money to Mauritius, Seychelles, Malaysia, Indonesia and Dubai.

“His wife informed me that he looked really agitated after watching the TV news about the Enforcement Directorate’s submission in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Apparently he felt that the net could be closing in around him once the directorate got the details from the foreign countries,” said the cousin who had come from their hometown Perambalur to receive the body.

The directorate had told the court that once it received replies to its letters rogatory — formal requests for help to foreign countries — it would get a clearer picture of the 2G kickbacks trail.

The growth of Batcha’s Green House Promoters to a Rs 600-crore company in three years, with branches in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and West Asia, had also come under the directorate’s scrutiny.

“He had not been his normal self from the day Raja got arrested and the directorate’s disclosure before the court would have added to his tension,” said the cousin, who said he runs a photocopying centre in Perambalur, 280km from here.

A senior police officer said “our initial enquiries with his relatives and friends had also revealed this is what had really troubled him and he had discussed the matter with a close friend from Perambalur many times on Tuesday night over the phone”.

Batcha was found hanging in his bedroom yesterday.

He was also keenly following the Hasan Ali case, a relative had told the police.

The cousin revealed that Batcha’s wife Reha Banu, during a recent visit to Perambalur, had urged him to consider turning approver. “But he was in no mood to turn against Raja, whom he considered to be his mentor and friend. That is probably why he wrote that line about Raja and his wife Parameswari in his suicide note,” he said. The note says the couple were innocent.

According to the preliminary post-mortem report submitted to the police, Batcha had died of asphyxia. It will take two weeks to determine if the death was a suicide or a murder, said the doctor who conducted the autopsy.

A police officer investigating the case said circumstantial evidence pointed to suicide since the bedroom door was found forced open and the rope was still hanging from the ceiling when the forensic team went looking for clues.

“The driver and the servant separately confirmed the exact chain of events that led to the discovery of Batcha’s body. Only by looking at his phone calls can we determine if there had been any external influence that compelled him to take his life,” the officer said.

Batcha’s body was taken to Perambalur for the funeral, expected to be attended by Raja’s siblings.

Security for Raja

Tihar jail authorities today tightened security for Raja, acting on an alert from the CBI. Senior CBI officers met in Delhi and examined all the documents Batcha had provided during questioning. “We also scrutinised his recorded statement to find out how to corroborate it now,” an officer said.