2G Spectrum scam: Raja grilled for eight hours

The move to question Raja, after an initial plan to examine him was deferred for a few days when the tainted DMK leader sought more time, came two weeks after his residences in Delhi and Chennai, besides 14 other places, were raided by the agency investigating a case which alleges that the former minister sold cellphone operators airwaves and rights too cheaply. Raja’s questioning took place at CBI headquarters where the former minister arrived at 10:30 am.

He was immediately whisked away to the CGO Complex building where he was grilled for eight hours during which time he was thrown several questions, including the trail of tainted 2G money and the companies that some of his friends and associates and he owned. Emerging after the gruelling questioning session, Raja told waiting newspersons that he had “cooperated fully with the CBI” and since “investigations are on, nothing else can be said at the moment.” Raja’s questioning comes after the probe agency examined lobbyist Nira Radia last week.

Radia, whose tapped telephone conversations with Raja, among other things, indicated that an auction to provide cellphone services was rigged to favour a few companies, was questioned by CBI sleuths for four hours.

The tapped conversations have revealed how some influential persons, including industrialists, politicians and journalists, could all be directly or otherwise involved in the scandal whose political fallout continues to grow with each day.

After Radia, the CBI questioned former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chief Pradip Baijal, a 1966 batch IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, in connection with the case.

After retiring from government service, Baijal co-founded a strategy consulting firm, Noesis, which has also been linked to the spectrum scam and Radia. His residential premises were raided and searched by the CBI.

Faced with a barrage of questions by reporters, CBI spokesperson Vinita Thakur said the agency “has been questioning Raja in the unified access service licence case.”

While the CBI spokesperson refused to divulge information, CBI sources said Raja was questioned at length on the circumstances leading to spectrum allocation, a point which earlier came under severe criticism by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and which, to a large extent, was exposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s damning report.
Sources revealed that Raja was asked questions on why dates for allocation of spectrum were advanced and the role his relatives and associates might have played in some of the companies which allegedly acted as fronts for certain telecom firms which won bandwidth rights between September 2007 and January 2008.

Raja was given the Telecom portfolio on May 18, 2007, and continued to head the ministry after his re-election, from May 31, 2009, till November 14, this year, when he had to resign following the revelations made by the CAG report and the subsequent pressure by the Opposition parties.

The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the probe, has asked the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to submit status reports on their respective investigations by February 10, 2011, when the case will come up for hearing.