Former Telecom Minister A Raja was on Saturday questioned for the second time in a row for his alleged involvement in allocation of 2G spectrum in 2007-08 even as the agency roped in Enforcement Directorate officials in the case.
A Letters Rogatory (LR) would also be sent to as many as three countries including Singapore by the CBI to know about the financial trail in the 2G scam as the agency has alleged that some of the kins of the former minister were associated with the case.
Raja arrived at CBI headquarters early this morning and was questioned on the issue of advancing dates for allocation of spectrum and on the role of his relatives in some of the companies which allegedly acted as a front for certain telecom firms which were alloted spectrum between September 2007 and January 2008, official sources said.
They said that Raja was asked to clarify some contents in certain documents, seized by the agency during its raids on Department of Telecom offices in October last year after registering a case against unknown officers of DoT and telecom companies.
Today’s questioning by CBI sleuths also focused on the tapped conversation of Raja with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia.
Raja left CBI office around 3.45 pm after the questioning. He refused to make any comments.
47-year-old Raja’s questioning came days after his residences in New Delhi and in Tamil Nadu were searched by the CBI officials.
While Raja, a DMK MP from Nilgris, was allowed to go home today, sources in the agency said that he would be called again during which he would be confronted with some more questions and documents recovered from the computers seized during the raids conducted by the agency earlier.
Raja had flown in from Chennai on Wednesday after receiving a summon under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
Raja was forced to resign on 14th November in the wake of the CAG report which held that the spectrum allocation at undervalued prices resulted in a notional loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
Raja got the telecom portfolio on 18th May, 2007 and again got re-elected as a Member of the 15th Lok Sabha and continued as Telecom Minister from 31st May, 2009 till 14th November, this year before he tendered his resignation.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has in its report also pointed out certain irregularities in the allocation of spectrum.
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