2G scam: Raja to be produced in court today

According to the CBI,Raja and his associates abused their official position to manipulate the tendering process by advancing cut-off dates,asking licencees to deposit fees within a week,and introducing an arbitrary first-come-first-served principle that benefited some firms.

The 47-year-old five-time MP was arrested after daylong questioning at the CBI headquarters in New Delhi. His former personal secretary R K Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura were questioned along with him,at the end of which all three were arrested.

Raja is the first former minister to be arrested for corruption by the government of which he was part. The other telecom minister who suffered a similar fate,Sukh Ram,was arrested in 1996 after the United Front government came to power.

Chandolia had been on the radar of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate since the scam broke in 2009. Behura was among those raided by the CBI in connection with the scam last year. More arrests were likely after the CBI submits an interim status report to the Supreme Court,sources said.

CBI sources said several “contradictions” emerged during “joint questioning” of the three men,whose statements did not tally with documents the CBI had seized. Raja and the two officials were learnt to have been questioned repeatedly on facts which had been put to Raja on the three earlier occasions on which he had been examined.

CBI spokesperson and DIG (STF) Anurag Kumar said,“The three,including former minister A Raja,have been arrested based on the facts disclosed so far during the investigation regarding their role in allocation of letter of intent and resultant UAS licences and spectrum to certain companies ahead of others,in violation of established guidelines and procedures. The three will be produced before the court.”

Investigators also asked the former minister about his conversations with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia,and the reason for advancing the cut-off date to apply for spectrum licence in 2007 by a week. Radia has already been questioned thrice by the CBI.

Top DMK sources said party president and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi,who returned to Chennai from Delhi after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi last night,knew what was going to happen on Wednesday.

“On his return from Delhi,the leader (Karunanidhi) was clear that the alliance (for the Assembly elections due in May)will continue… It is virtually impossible that today’s action was not discussed… since both parties are keen to win the polls,which is now possible only by sticking together,” said a DMK leader.