Chennai, Dec 22 (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday that it has provisionally attached 45 acres of land worth Rs 55 crore in Coimbatore repportedly belonging former Union minister and DMK leader A. Raja.

The ED said in a statement said that the land was bought by Raja with the money he got as 'bribe' while serving as Union Minister for Environment and Forest (2004 to 2007).

It may be recalled that Raja, the Lok Sabha MP from Nilgiris constituency and Deputy Secretary of DMK, was under the radar of the ED in the 2G spectrum scam.

During the course of a PMLA investigation, the ED found that Raja, during his tenure as Minister for Environment and Forest, had granted environmental clearance to a real-estate company based out of Gurugram.

The ED also found that the real-estate company gave kickback to Raja as quid pro quo for awarding the environmental clearance around the same period in 2007 in the garb of land commission income in the hands of a benami company of Raja.

"It was found that Raja incorporated the company in the same year in the name of his family members and his close family friend with the sole objective of using it as a vehicle to park the proceeds of crime. The said company was never engaged in any business activity since its inception and the entire money received by the company was quid pro quo from the real estate deal which was used for acquiring land in Coimbatore district," the ED said.

The ED said that 45 acres of land in Coimbatore worth Rs 55 crore was purchased directly using the proceeds of crime, which has been provisionally attached by the ED.