The Central Bureau of Investigation will seek an extension of former telecom minister A Raja's remand, according to a top official of the agency. Raja was arrested in connection with the 2G spectrum scam last week along with his aides R K Chandolia and Siddarth Behura. Raja is scheduled to appear before the CBI court in Patiala house on Tuesday at the end of his five-day custody. The investigating officers said that they have been able to make considerable progress.
Trashing the report on 2G scam by Justice Shivraj Patil, former telecom minister Arun Shourie on Tuesday accused Union Minister Kapil Sibal of trying to save former telecom minister A Raja by functioning as his advocate.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the government should not make A Raja and Suresh Kalmadi scapegoats in the 2-G spectrum and Commonwealth Games scams and asserted that since all decisions were taken by the Union Cabinet and the prime minister, a joint parliamentary probe alone could bring out the truth. He stuck to the BJP stand that until a JPC is formed, the whole truth will not come out.
Throwing its weight behind former telecom minister A Raja, the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam on Thursday said his arrest does not prove his guilt in the 2G spectrum scam and accused opposition parties of targetting him to "malign" the party.
"When the time to prosecute A Raja comes, the CBI would have to depend upon the central government. It is the central government, which has to sanction prosecution of Raja. Time alone will tell what happens in the case," he told rediff.com.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said the arrest of former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G Spectrum scam raised more questions than answers and alleged that it was a "purely political" decision keeping in mind Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.
Paving the way for proceedings against a lawyer who allegedly tried to influence a Madras High Court judge by taking former Telecom Minister A Raja's name, the Supreme Court vacated its stay and asked Bar Council of India (BCI) to decide the complaint against him.
The minister said that as committed earlier, the 3G spectrum would be distributed to all successful bidders on September 1 for launching services on commercial basis.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had invited bids to add 93 million GSM lines about two years ago and one of the leading vendor Nokia-Siemens Network was disqualified on technical issues and since then the PSU has not been able to place the orders because of various reasons including legal battles.
A Delhi court on Friday held as "maintainable" a private complaint filed by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy seeking prosecution of former Telecom Minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum case.
Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy moved the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the 2G spectrum licences alloted during the tenure of former Telecom Minister A Raja allegedly in violation of all norms and procedure causing huge loss to the state exchequer.
The Central Bureau of Investigation may arrest eight bigwigs involved in the 2G Spectrum scam, including former telecom minister A Raja, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and key Raja aides RK Chandolia and A K Srivastava.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja was being questioned again at the headquarters of the Central Bureau of Investigation in New Delhi on Saturday in connection with alleged irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum to certain telecom firms.
He was "questioned in relation to the case registered into the allocation of unified access service licenses," CBI DIG and spokesperson Bineeta Thakur told media persons, adding that the process was continuing.
Upon discovery of the price for 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum, BSNL and MTNL recently paid Rs 18,500.38 crore (Rs 185 billion) and Rs 11,097.97 crore (Rs 110.97 billion), respectively, to the government.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is all set to videograph the questioning of former telecom minister A Raja on Friday.
Former telecom minister A Raja met Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam chief M Karaunanidhi in Chennai on Saturday, three-days after the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted raids at his residences in connection with the 2G scam. The outcome of the meeting held at Karaunanidhi's residence was, however, not known.
Former Union telecom minister A Raja on Saturday said he will cooperate with the Central Bureau of Investigation to prove his innocence in the wake of the probe agency conducting searches at the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham leader and his aides' residences in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja, at the centre of the 2G spectrum allocation scam, has earned the dubious distinction of figuring in the list of Time Magazine's "an ignominious club of privileged leaders who stepped too far".
Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Wednesday said action will be taken against former telecom minister A Raja if he was found guilty in the 2G Spectrum scam.
"The Bhartiya Janata Party wants to use the Joint Parliamentary Committee as the political tool. It's the issue of ego. It's a political demand so the Congress is not agreeing to it," says Janardhan Dwivedi, chairman of media cell of the Congress, while talking exclusively to rediff.com about why Congress is not agreeing to a JPC to look into allegations related to the allotment of 2G spectrum.
In further embarrassment to former telecom minister A Raja, the Madras high court on Tuesday suspended from the bar a top lawyer who was allegedly involved in an attempt to influence a judge taking the name of the minister.A division bench comprising Justice F M Ibrahim Khalifulla and Justice M M Sundaresh, said the status of R K Chandramohan, a member and subsequently the chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Pondichery, shall stand suspended forthwith.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja today questioned in the Supreme Court the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) finding that the exchequer had suffered a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the allocation of 2G spectrum, terming the figure as "mind boggling and speculative".
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday submitted to the Supreme Court the status report on its ongoing investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation scam allegedly involving former telecom minister A Raja. The status report was submitted to the apex court registry in a sealed cover. The apex court, earlier on November 25, had castigated the CBI on why it had not questioned Raja and the telecom secretary in the case, saying the agency was 'beating around the bush'.
Terming Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy's plea for prosecuting former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum case as "misconceived and premature", the government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the sanction had been sought even before a complaint was filed in a court.
The apex court also said the CAG report on the 2G spectrum allocation placed in Parliament was 'revealing.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer to present himself for questioning appeared to have weighed in on the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee with the PAC giving him a clean chit in its draft report, while indicting arrested former telecom minister A Raja and seeking re-tendering of the 2G licences he had given for a song, causing a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore (Rs 1.76 trillion) to the exchequer.
With his resignation as telecom minister, A Raja appeared to have saved himself from any mention in the Supreme Court today in the controversial 2G case, with petitioners seeking more time to file submissions on the report of the CAG that is to be placed in Parliament.
As Telecom Minister A Raja finally quit, speculation was rife that either party MP and Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi or Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran could replace him. Though there was no official word on who would hold the Telecom portfolio, indications were available that either Kanimozhi or Maran, both from the DMK's first family, may be the next in line.
Parliament was on Thursday paralysed for the second day with the Opposition storming the Well in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, demanding the ouster of Telecom Minister A Raja, while Congress members denounced the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for K S Sudarshan's anti-Sonia Gandhi remarks.In the Lok Sabha, Bharatiya Janata Party members rushed to the Well, raising slogans against Raja. They were joined by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Shiv Sena members.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday demanded sacking of Telecom Minister A Raja alleging that the 3G spectrum auction "convincingly" proved his involvement in corrupt practices in the sale of 2G spectrum.
The Supreme Court on Friday slammed CBI for its "slipshod" investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation scam, in which the alleged role of Telecom Minister A Raja has come under the scanner, saying "the same minister is still continuing today".
Brushing aside Centre's objections, the Supreme Court on Friday said it would pass an order for the appointment of senior advocate U U Lalit as special public prosecutor for holding the trial of former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum case on a day-to-day basis without any adjournments.
The DoT issued the information memorandum last week, saying auction would start on January 14 and for this to happen, the blocks of spectrum to be auctioned must be identified latest by the first week of December.
Telecom minister A Raja on Tuesday said he followed the same procedures as his predecessors in awarding licences and allotting spectrum and decisions were taken in conformity with the opinion of the top law officer.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said that the allotment of 2G spectrum licences by the Union ministry of telecommunications to private companies was 'the largest scam in Independent India' and it had cost the government Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion).
Both the Houses of Parliament adjourned amid opposition demands for resignation of Telecom Minister A Raja for his alleged involvement in the reported scam in allocation of 2G spectrum on Monday.
The office of Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati has said he had offered advice as solicitor general to the then External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and Telecom minister A Raja in 2007 on 2G spectrum issues but it was not written and there is no copy of it.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday registered a case and began a probe into the death of Sadiq Batcha, a close aide of former telecom minister A Raja who has been arrested in the multi-crore spectrum allocation scam. The agency has started its investigations under Section 174 of the CrPC in the mysterious death of Batcha, who was found hanging at his home in Chennai on March 16.
Swamy recalled that he had filed a petition to the prime minister in November last year seeking the sanction to launch criminal investigation on a private complaint under different sections of the PCA.
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