‘Rich’ candidate jacks up wealth to expose officials’ negligence

However, when contacted Mohanraj, he said that he had deliberately gave inflated figures to prove that there is no verification of assets details by the authority while screening the nominations. According to Mohanraj’s affidavit, he has declared Rs1.76 lakh crore as cash in hand and Rs 4 lakh crore loan with the World Bank.

Mohanraj, a former CBI inspector who was part of the team that investigated the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, said that he wanted to highlight the failure to punish the culprits in the 2G scam by mentioning the figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. “The Rs 4 lakh crore liability was Tamil Nadu’s debt to World Bank,” he explained.

He also revealed that he has declared the assets in inflated figures to mock at the Election Commission as all the other candidates filing false affidavits. “People are being made fools. They think whatever they (candidates) file in the affidavit is the truth but that is not the case,” he said, pointing out that the EC has made false declaration a civil offence in 2014, while it was earlier a criminal offence with the candidates facing six months’ imprisonment.

Mohanraj who is the son of freedom fighter Nellai Jebamani has done filing inflated asset figure to the EC in the past too. In 2009 LS polls, he contested the South Chennai constituency claiming to own assets worth Rs 1977 crore. In 2016 Assembly polls, he said that he declared same inflated asset when he contested the Kolathur Assembly seat against DMK leader MK Stalin but no one took note of it.

Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam said that the EC accepting Mohanraj’s affidavit show how the affidavit scrutiny happens. “This is proof enough how EC works! A person has shown 1.76 lakh crore cash and 4 lakh crore loan from World Bank. The EC has accepted the affidavit. Much needed mockery of the affidavit acceptance process!” he tweeted.