The former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, was on Saturday questioned for the second consecutive day in connection with the alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum in 2007-08.
Mr. Raja's second marathon session with CBI investigators here lasted over six hours. CBI sources said Letters Rogatory (LR) were likely to be sent to three countries, including Singapore, seeking cooperation from the authorities there to unravel the financial trail of the scam.
The DMK leader reached the CBI headquarters around 10 a.m. and was quizzed on advancing the 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 allotted spectrum between September 2007 and January 2008, official sources said.
The sources said that Mr. 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 the DoT and telecom companies.
CBI officials also trained their guns on the tapped conversation of the former Telecom Minister with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, seeking more details and clarifications from him.
Mr. Raja left the CBI headquarters at 4 p.m., saying that he was cooperating with the agency but refused to make any further comment.
He had to resign on November 14 in the wake of the Comptroller and Auditor-General's report which held that the spectrum allocation at undervalued prices resulted in a notional loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has in its report also pointed out certain irregularities in the allocation of spectrum.
‘Extraordinary delay'
Reacting to raids on CWG Organising Committee (OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi and the questioning of Mr. Raja, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said the CBI action came after much delay.
The party spokesperson and MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy told journalists that the BJP would like to “know the reason behind this extraordinary delay in questioning Mr. Raja and raiding Mr. Kalmadi.'' He wondered why the CBI had not taken permission to question Mr. Raja earlier even after it had registered an FIR more than a year ago.
