CBI books Jayanthi Natarajan, raids her premises in Chennai

Forest land diversion for mining and criminal conspiracy

Former Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s house in Chennai was searched by sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday in connection with controversial clearances given for diversion of forest land for mining in Jharkhand’s Singhbhum district during her tenure as minister five years ago.

The agency had registered five preliminary enquiries in 2015 to probe alleged irregularities committed by Jayanthi while she was minister for granting clearances in several projects.

A case was also registered on charges of criminal conspiracy and abuse of official position under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

Natarajan was forced to quit the UPA Cabinet in December 2013 following various charges that were not made public at that time.

A month later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Parliamentary election campaign, had coined the famous term “Jayanthi Tax” to insinuate that the UPA’s environment minister had imposed her own “tax” to grant environmental clearances for big ticket projects.

In 2015 Natarajan had quit the Congress and has since remained in political oblivion and therefore the searches on her house too came as a surprise. She had earlier claimed that she had halted certain big projects in her ministry at the behest of AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

Sources said a CBI team had arrived at her bungalow in the posh Alwarpet colony in the heard of the city in the morning but the news of the searches leaked only towards the evening.

“Jayanthi Natarajan accorded the approval for diversion of 55.79 hectares of forest land for non-forestry use to Electosteel Casting Limited, though the same had been rejected by the earlier minister of state,” the CBI’s FIR said. This approval was granted “without any change in the circumstances after rejection” and was in violation of existing mining laws, environmental laws and the directions of the Supreme Court.

The then managing director of Electosteel Casting Limited has also been named as an accused in the CBI’s FIR.

It also highlighted that the approval by her ministry had been granted without adhering to the advice of Director General (Forests) and directions of the Supreme Court in this regard.

Late last year, Natarajan had revealed that she was writing a tell-all book but it never saw the light.

Natarajan had also stoutly denied the allegations of misusing her office and doing anything wrong said: “Let them prove that. I welcome any inquiry to prove if I have committed any wrong. I have done my duty without any blemish. When my own party has treated me shabbily, why not Modi?”