Indian businessman linked to telecoms scandal found dead

An Indian businessman who had been questioned over a multi-billion-dollar telecoms fraud was found dead on Wednesday in the southern city of Chennai after apparently committing suicide. Police described Sadiq Batcha as a business associate and aide to A. Raja, the former telecoms minister at the centre of a scandal that has rocked the government.
Raja is under arrest accused of rigging the sale of second-generation (2G) mobile licences in 2008, causing losses of up to $40 billion to the treasury. Batcha, 47, was found hanged in his Chennai home two months after police raided his house and office as part of a probe into the scandal. He was questioned for 10 hours by police in February and some of his financial records were also examined.
"He was brought dead to the Apollo hospital. The family says he had hanged himself," Chennai police commissioner T. Rajendran told reporters, adding detectives had yet to confirm the cause of death. Raja's wife was a director of Batcha's real estate firm, Green House Promoters. She quit in 2008 but a nephew and a brother of the jailed politician remain on the company's board, according to the police.
Detectives are looking into allegations that selected firms benefited from the 2G licence bidding rules when Raja was telecoms minister and whether kickbacks were paid. Police suspect Raja's associates formed shell companies to collect money from the telecom deals in which licences were sold at cut-price rates.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the telecoms fraud, dubbed the 2G spectrum scandal, said it had not pressured Batcha during the course of his questioning. "The development is unexpected but it will not affect the investigation in the ongoing 2G spectrum scandal as all the evidences have already been recorded," a CBI spokeswoman told the Press Trust of India in New Delhi. "He was cooperating with the CBI," she said, adding the dead businessman had been questioned four times by CBI detectives.
"The demise of Batcha, reportedly (an) associate of the then telecom minister A. Raja is unexpected," the CBI added in a statement. Billionaire tycoon Anil Ambani and several other business chiefs have also been also quizzed by CBI investigators during the inquiry. Prosecutors told India's Supreme Court in New Delhi Wednesday that a formal chargesheet would be filed on March 31 against Raja and two telecom firms in a special court that is holding trials in connection with the case.