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Death, it appears, has unravelled one of the many shadowy deals that late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her close aide VK Sasikala clinched in the early 1990’s.
For more than one reason now, a spotlight has been put on the 906-acre Kodanadu estate in the Nilgiris district, that was once Jayalalithaa’s favourite retreat to escape the scorching summer in Chennai. On 24 April, the sprawling tea estate witnessed a break-in and the murder of a security guard. While the police nailed Jayalalithaa’s former driver for the crime, questions over what he was after have not been answered yet. Kanagaraj was found dead in Salem days later, purportedly killed in a road accident.
And while the police are still working on piecing together the murder mystery, the former owner of the Kodanadu estate has now alleged that he was forced to sell the property for a throwaway price, after being harassed for two years by the late CM and her associates.
Until 1994, the 906-acre property belonged to the family of Peter Karl Edward Craig Jones, a British citizen. His father William Jones had bought the estate in 1975, and his family then went on to form the Kodanadu Tea Estate Private Limited, a company created to process and market tea produced in the estate in the early 1990’s.
Detailing how the ‘deal’ was negotiated, Peter recounts that he and his family were in talks with Palaniappan Rajarathinam, a businessman from Coimbatore.
Labelled the ‘takeover tycoon’ by the media, P Rajathinam shot to fame in the early 1990’s by buying out sick companies. Tracing his growth story, India Today’s Sheela Raval and Ajith Pillai wrote in April 1995:
That he often rubbed shoulders with the political class was an open secret, with many even suggesting that his political connections were in fact the real source of his funds.
From taking over Tunghabadra Sugars (renamed Deve Sugars), Benares State Bank to Apollo Tubes, Madras Motor Group, Garware Paints, Annapoorna Foods among others, the Coimbatore man acquired a range of loss-making companies in a short span.
With several cases against him, a red-corner notice was issued in 2002, with Interpol alerted to nab him. His present whereabouts are believed to be in the UK.
From 1992 to 1994, Rajarathinam remained the point person with Peter and his family, facilitating meetings with Sasikala and KA Sengottaiyan, presently Education Minister and AIADMK Presidium Chairman.
While the British family never had meetings with Jayalalithaa, their discussions with Sasikala and Rajarathinam were very often at the CM’s Veda Nilayam residence in Poes Garden. When negotiations hit rough weather, Peter alleges that he was harassed with calls, threatened and intimidated by goons.
NPV Ramasamy Udayar was a liquor baron turned educationalist, who was close to former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran. In fact, Udayar was so close to MGR that government land was allegedly given to him in the 1980’s to set up the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute at Porur in Chennai.
Udayar offered a solution to the Joneses, who refused to make a deal with Sasikala. His daughter-in-law Radha Venkatachalam would buy the 906-acre tea estate for a sum of Rs 7.6 crore.
The very next day after Udayar signed the deal, Sasikala, her nephew Sudhakaran and sister-in-law Ilaivarasi became partners of the Kodanadu Tea Estate Private Limited.
Peter says:
The Kodanadu estate figures in the trial court judgement of the Disproportionate Assets case involving Jayalalithaa, Sasikala, Sudhakaran and Ilaivarasi. It states:
As quid-pro-quo for the deal, Radha Venkatachalam’s father R Krishnamurthy was made Advocate General by Jayalalithaa in 1994, reported Outlook.
The Kodanadu Estate wasn’t the only deal that industrialist Udayar finalised for Sasikala and co. The DA judgement makes mention of Ramraj Agro Mill, where Udayar negotiated a deal for Sudhakaran, Sundaravadanan (Sasikala’s brother) and Prabha (Sasikala’s niece). The three took over Ramraj Agro Mill’s Board of Management after buying 6,18,000 shares at a throwaway price of Rs 3 per share.
What’s apparent from Peter’s tale is that for Sasikala and co, using industrialists like Udayar and Rajarathinam were only a means to an end. With Jayalalithaa dead and her close aide Sasikala behind bars, those like Peter, who were hounded, harassed and finally short-changed of their assets, now hope the time has finally come to reclaim what they believe is rightfully theirs.
(This article was first published in The News Minute.)
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