Whistle Blower of Government Housing Scam Arrested

As if suspending this whistle blower was not enough. Now A. Shankar, who exposed a government housing scam in Tamil Nadu a few days ago, has been arrested and remanded in judicial custody.

The expose by the 34 year old clerk in the vigilance department revealed names of several influential persons, including a top policeman, a former bureaucrat and a journalist close to the ruling DMK. The police, however, denied Shankar was being targeted or victimized.

Sources said Shankar was instrumental in passing on material evidence on the land scam as well as other information to a Tamil website, which published them.

Beneficiaries of the government’s discretion were Jeniffer, daughter of police IG ( intelligence) Jaffar Sait; Durga Shankaram, son of Rajamanickam, former personal secretary of the chief minister; and Jayasudha, wife of Kamaraj, a Karunanidhi acolyte and deputy editor of Nakheeran magazine.

The website stated the three were shown the favour under the category of ‘ social workers’. Securing the prime land under the government’s discretionary quota for their kin, the trio has reportedly ventured into real estate business by teaming up with one Nazeemudin, a close aide of the son of the Tamil Nadu governor. The website even named the construction firm as ‘Land Mark Constructions’. The invite for the inauguration of the company has been distributed, stated the website.

All the three plots - 538, 539 and 540 - are adjacent in the Thiruvanmiyur scheme under the Besant Nagar division of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board ( TNHB). The price of each was fixed at more than Rs 1 crore, though the market rate was much higher.

Interestingly, after the allotment, Jeniffer’s plot ( 540, measuring 4,756 sq ft) was transferred to her mother, Parveen. Sait denied any wrongdoing in the allotment.

“I have no skeletons in my cupboard. The misconceptions, if any, have already been cleared by the TNHB. Everything is legal,” he said.