A key accused in the Tamil Nadu transport job racket case, 45-year-old Baskar, died due to poisoning under mysterious circumstances several months ago without anybody noticing. His death assumes significance in light of the fact that Senthil Balaji, a minister in the present DMK government, is listed as a co-accused in the job scam. Balaji, who is now minister for electricity, prohibition and excise, was the previous AIADMK government's transport minister when the scam broke in the year 2015.
Despite being the prime accused in the sensational case which shook the previous government, Basker's death has gone unreported until now. Interestingly, the police found a 'confessional statement' in the dead man's bag, the contents of which are being kept under wraps. A police source also claimed that Baskar wanted to turn approver against the other accused in the job scam case.
Baskar was working as Junior Assistant in the Tamil Nadu government’s Metropolitan Transport Corporation posted at Saidapet Depot in Chennai when the scam broke. As per the First Information Report registered by the Chennai Police Central Crime Branch, he was classified as accused number one in the job racket case. The CCB Job Racket wing investigation found that then Transport Minister Senthil Balaji was involved in the case and submitted a chargesheet naming him as A1.
The job racket involved the collection of several crore rupees in bribes from candidates aspiring for jobs as drivers, conductors and mechanics in the MTC. What's more, the aspirants who tried to cheat the system, ended up being cheated themselves when the promised jobs failed to materialize. The defrauded aspirants blew the whistle leading a massive public outcry.
The initial interest in the case had waned by the time the DMK government rode to power and Balaji switched sides. Not surprisingly, the death of the lowly government servant linked to a powerful politician through the MTC bribery case, went completely unnoticed. Despite knowing that Baskar was connected in a high profile case, the circumstances leading to his death were never probed.
Baskar's family received a phone call on February 24, 2022 from locals regarding his condition. “We were told that he was lying on the road after consuming poison. When we reached the spot, we saw he was unconscious. We immediately rushed him to Royapettah Government Hospital and he died at the hospital later. We don’t know the full details as to what exactly happened. What we know is that he was under pressure due to work-related issues (job racket scam),” Baskar’s brother Boopathy told TNM.
Following Baskar’s death, an FIR was registered on February 27 at the Zam Bazaar police station under section 174 of CrPC (suspicious death), based on a complaint lodged by his mother Vimala. She had also handed over a ‘confession statement’ that was found in his bag. She urged the police authorities to take action based on this note. When TNM contacted the Zam Bazaar police, the inspector said “Baskar was a transport department staff, there are three cases pending against him with the CCB. He consumed poison and died as he had family related issues.” When TNM specifically asked about the suicide note handed over to the police by Baskar’s mother Vimala demanding action, the inspector reluctantly says, “He (Baskar) had blamed his co-accused for his death.”
While police claim that Baskar died due to family related issues, his brother Boopathy says “He (Baskar) had no family related issues, since 2014 he has been dealing with this case and was under pressure. We have seen information in the newspapers that some high-profile people are involved in this case. We don’t know the facts and we can’t accuse anyone without knowing the full details.”
Interestingly, while the Zam Bazaar police was investigating the mysterious death of Baskar. On March 21, Vimala appeared before the CCB and recorded a statement that Baskar had faced harassment before his death from one of the victims of the scam. Baskar’s family had submitted a copy of the FIR registered with the Zam Bazaar police station regarding the death of Baskar, copy of the death certificate and also the ‘confession statement’ in which Baskar names his co-accused for taking his own life. No action has been taken so far.
Adding to the intrigue, a police official who spoke to TNM on the condition of anonymity claimed, “He had expressed his willingness to turn approver and the CCB officials were in the process of recording this statement." Now that he is dead, we may never know what kind of pressure Baskar was under or what he was thinking in his last days.
TNM has also learnt that the police did not collect Baskar’s postmortem report for further investigation or the report has been shared with the family members of Baskar. Baskar’s viscera samples are yet to be sent to the Forensic Sciences laboratory (FSL) for chemical examination, a reliable source confirmed to TNM. The Viscera report is prepared by the FSL to determine the cause of death in suspicious cases.
The case so far
As per a First Information Report registered by the Chennai Police Central Crime Branch in 2015, Baskar along with his colleagues Palani, Kesavan and others had collected huge amounts of money from several aspiring candidates for MTC driver, conductor and mechanic jobs, and later cheated them. According to a complaint filed by one victim in the scam, Rs 2.31 crore was allegedly handed over to the then Transport Minister Senthil Balaji, in the presence of accused number 1 Baskar, the minister’s brother V Ashok Kumar, and brother-in-law Karthik.
The chargesheet in the case says Baskar was also the person handling the money collected from aspiring candidates, and handing it over to his colleagues in the Transport Department. The final report filed before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court for CCB and CBCID (Metro) Cases in 2017 alleges that an amount of Rs 3.87 crore that was collected from several candidates by other accused was handed over to Baskar and he had gambled a portion of this amount on horse races.
Originally, the case was registered by the Central Crime Branch in 2015, based on a written complaint from S Devasagayam. He alleged that he was in search for a government job for his son. C Palani, who was working as a conductor in Metropolitan Transport Corporation, allegedly demanded Rs 2,60,000 to arrange for a job as a bus conductor. He allegedly promised that he would get the appointment order with the help of Baskar, who was working as a Junior Assistant at the Saidapet Depot. The duo failed to deliver on their promise, the complainant said, and even after six months, they neither got an appointment order, nor was their money returned. Devasagayam also learnt that money was being collected from similar aspiring candidates, and he lodged a complaint with the police in 2015.
While this case was under investigation, on March 7, 2016, another victim, Gopi, lodged a complaint with the Chennai Commissioner of Police alleging that he, along with some others, had given a total amount of Rs 2.31 crore to the then Transport Minister V Senthil Balaji in the presence of Balaji’s brother V Ashok Kumar, brother-in-law Karthik, and Baskar. They were promised appointment orders for the post of driver, conductor and mechanic, but their promise was not fulfilled, the complainants alleged.
Later, one more victim in this case Gopi, also approached the Madras High Court seeking a detailed probe. The Madras High Court Justice PN Prakash then directed the Central Crime Branch to go beyond the lower level officials and find out as to where the huge sum of Rs 2 crore had gone. Based on the directions of the Madras High Court, the matter was probed by the CCB Job Racket Wing, and a final report was filed before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court for CCB and CBCID Metro Cases, against Baskar and 11 other accused.
The police investigations revealed that over Rs 3.87 crore was collected from several aspiring candidates and was handed over to Baskar, who in turn spent a portion of the amount gambling on horse races, and handed over the remaining amount to the other accused. The chargesheet filed by the CCB had only names of junior level staff members and no higher official was charged by the police.
Court’s push to probe the larger conspiracy
Dissatisfied with the investigations conducted by the CCB, another victim, RB Arun Kumar, filed a petition before the Madras High Court seeking further investigations into the case. Madras High Court Justice MS Ramesh in his order observed that the previous order by Justice PN Prakash directing police officials to probe the role of higher officials was disregarded, and ordered a fresh probe into this matter. Till then, the final report which only charged junior level staff of the Metropolitan Corporation, was to be kept in abeyance.
The CCB then carried out another investigation and chargesheeted 47 persons including the then Transport Minister V Senthil Balaji, his brother V Ashok Kumar, brother-in-law Karthik, former managing directors of transport corporations, joint managing director, joint director (public relations), deputy director (public relations), junior engineers, and other staff members belonging to various transport corporations.
In the final report, the CCB charged Senthil Balaji and his close associates Shanmugam, Karthikeyan, Karthik, of collecting data and information from the State Transport Corporation through the managing directors, officers of the personnel section and other officers of the Transport Corporation, and collating the complete data of the candidates.
Senthil Balaji was also accused of collecting illegal gratification from the candidates.Senthil Balaji and his close confidants were also accused of issuing appointment orders without following reservation by fraudulently altering the interview marks of candidates with the intention of cheating the meritorious candidates.