Tamil Nadu’s “richest” candidate dares EC to prove him wrong

Tamil Nadu’s “richest” candidate dares EC to prove him wrong Jebamani Mohanraj | via Facebook

He is the richest candidate contesting the bypolls to the Tamil Nadu assembly from the Perambur constituency. He has declared Rs 1.76 lakh crore cash in hand and a Rs 4 lakh crore loan from the World Bank. Anyone hearing these numbers will get a flicker in their mind if they had heard the same value a few years before. Yes, Rs 1.76 lakh crore is a sarcastic reference to the notional value of the 2G spectrum scam and Rs 4 lakh crore is the debt burden of Tamil Nadu government.

Meet Mohanraj Jebamani, a retired police inspector and son of former MLA and freedom fighter Jebamani. On the face of it, as per his affidavit, he is the richest candidate with properties in Tamil Nadu’s popular areas like Poes Garden, Gopalapuram and Kodanad, and he is the only candidate who has managed to secure the maximum loan amount from the World Bank.

In his affidavit, under the assets column, Mohanraj has quoted his assets worth Rs 1.76 lakh crores and under the liabilities column he says his loan amount of Rs 4 lakh crore from the World Bank. He has filed a fake affidavit to the Election Commission of India, deliberately to draw the attention of the people to say how the ECI is a toothless organisation. “Form 26 is a waste. The ECI doesn’t have any power. Most of the political party candidates file fake affidavits,” Mohanraj told THE WEEK.

Mohanraj, is contesting elections for the second time. In 2016, he contested from Mylapore constituency. “I filed the same affidavit during 2016 elections also. Then my loan amount from the World Bank was Rs 3 lakh crore, as Tamil Nadu’s debt stood at Rs 3 lakh crore. Because the debts have gone up, I have mentioned it as Rs 4 lakh crore now,” he said.

For the 67-year old police officer, this affidavit is only to expose the inability of the Election Commission. “You can declare whatever you want in the affidavit. The Election Commission will do nothing. I want the ECI to make false declarations as a criminal offence. But unfortunately it was made to be as of civil nature in 2014. It was made a civil matter on April 26, 2014, only to save Karti P Chidambaram,” Mohanraj said. “In 2014, Karti Chidambaram contested from Sivaganga. He filed his nomination on April 4. On April 7, an Income Tax Commissioner from Delhi filed a 147-page complaint, stating that Karti had altered a lot of details. The officer requested that his nomination be rejected. Filing a fake affidavit was a criminal offence then, with six months imprisonment. I filed a complaint with the ECI. But no action was taken,” tells Mohanraj.

And again his fight to tap the loopholes in the ECI rules began during the elections in 2016. He filed an RTI with the Sivaganga collector in 2016 for which the collector took money and did not give any reply, alleges Mohanraj. “I filed a PIL with the Madras High Court. But nothing came up. It was after that, on April 26, the ECI wrote to me saying that the punishment for filing false affidavits had been made a civil issue,” Mohanraj says.

An anti-corruption enthusiast Mohanraj who filed similar fake affidavits in 2009 and 2016, however, did not face any legal setback. “I was not even served a notice for filing a false affidavit. How is that we can expect a free and fair election?” askes Mohanraj. "You can declare whatever you want in the affidavit. The Election Commission will do nothing," he claimed and demanded that false declarations be made a criminal offence.

Mohanraj’s father Jebamani was an MLA from the Sathankulam constituency in 1976, the election held immediately after the emergency was lifted. His father Jebamani was one of the detainees under the MISA during the emergency and was part of Morarji Desai’s Janata party then. “I got voluntary retirement from the police service, because of corruption.” He has named his party as Jebamani Janata Party after his father.

The Election Commission officials, however, during a press conference in Chennai on Thursday clarified that it is purely the prerogative of the returning officer, as per law, to decide on the authenticity of the affidavit filed. But Mohanraj is determined to fight the ECI and wants to ensure that the punishment for filing false affidavits is again changed to criminal nature.