Batcha suicide: SC to hear plea for CBI probe

The mysterious death of former telecom minister A Raja's close aide Sadiq Batcha was on Thursday brought to the notice of the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the plea for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the matter.

Appearing for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, a non-government organisation, on whose plea a CBI probe was directed into the 2G scam, advocate Prashant Bhushan pleaded before the court that the death is related with the scam and should also be probed by the investigating agency.

He also mentioned that the state government has favoured a CBI probe into 47-year-old Batcha's death. A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, while agreeing to hear his plea, said, "Wait till lunch or Friday morning, as some development might take place during the day."

Bhushan said he would bring the matter before the bench again at 2 pm. Batcha died in mysterious circumstances at his home in South Chennai on Wednesday, and his wife claimed that he committed suicide because he was 'unable to cope with the pressure' of the probe into the case.

Batcha was the managing director of Greenhouse Promoters, a firm under the scanner of the CBI as well as the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the spectrum allocation scam.

He was said to have been found hanging in his house in Vannia Teynampet in South Chennai by his wife and driver at around 1 pm.

The CBI and the ED had conducted searches at his official and residential premises in December. He had been called for questioning four times since then. The possibility of his firm's acting as a front for the former minister was being looked into.