Controversial DMK leader and former union minister, S. Jagathrakshakan is linked to the largest foreign investment deal in Sri Lanka. According to reports, Silver Park International PTE Ltd, a Singapore based investment firm owned by Accord Group has agreed to invest in 3.9 billion dollars in oil refinery being built with assistance from Oman oil ministry in Sri Lanka. Accord Group, which is owned by Jagathrakshakan family is a major investor in the project.
The refinery will produce 2,00,000 barrel per day and is situated near the Chinese controlled Hambantota port in Sri Lanka. “This is the biggest single foreign investment (in Sri Lanka’s history),” said Nalin Bandara, Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of International Trade. The Singapore based company will bring almost 70 percent of the total capital (1.89 billion dollars). The rest of the 2 billion dollars will be raised through loan capital.
As per the information with Singapore’s national regulator Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Silver Park International is owned by Jegath Rakshagan Sundeep Anand, Jagathrakshakan Sri Nisha and Jagathrakshakan Anusuya who are the son, daughter and wife of Jagathrakshakan respectively. “We are aware of the Singapore company’s links to an Indian business interest. The agreement has been signed by one Mr. Jagathrakshakan,” said a senior government official to The Hindu.
Jagathrakshakan was one of the first politicians to enter in the business of private colleges. He opened Shree Balaji Medical College and Hospital back in the 1980s and the college hit controversy when 2012 a Times Now investigation caught the administration on camera demanding capitation fee of 20 lakh rupees from a student. A company owned by his family received coal allocation from the Puducherry government.
He was Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry during UPA era and his wealth increased by 12 times in just two years tenure at the ministry. In 2009 his wealth was 5.9 crore rupees as per the election affidavit and it increased 70 crore rupees in just two years. This was the highest percentage rise in the wealth of all the ministers of the union government.
In 2016, Income Tax authorities raided the houses, business establishments reportedly seized more than Rs 20 crore of unaccounted money during the raid including Rs 5 crore seized in cash seized from one of his residences. IT sleuths conducted raids after specific information that the former Minister has evaded Income Tax to the tune of more than Rs 200 crore.
He is one of the richest politicians in the country. He built huge assets despite the fact that he started his career a as modest railway employee and then as a politician. Like any typical Congress/UPA politician, he used the political power to amass huge wealth. His rise to fortunes is the story of crony capitalism in the country. His business interests were in the field where there was government regulation and proximity to the government was necessary to get approvals. He owned dozens of colleges in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Pondicherry. He also owns a distillery in Villupuram and a star hotel in T Nagar, the heart of Chennai.
The politicians like Jagathrakshakan are symbolic to the era of crony capitalism/favoritism/nepotism prevalent in the UPA era.
