CBI questions Raja again in 2G scam investigation

NEW DELHI: On a day in which he was named by a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge for committing grave procedural lapses in allocating 2G spectrum, former telecom minister A Raja was grilled by the CBI for the third time in an attempt to fill up crucial blanks in the investigations into the scam.

Raja, who was questioned by the CBI on December 24, and again on December 25 last year, was interrogated for some eight-and-a-half hours on Monday.

Explaining the decision to summon the DMK leader for the third time, CBI sources pointed out that the agency, during the course of its probe into the scam, had stumbled upon several new pieces of information. The former telecom minister was confronted with them.

The CBI has to submit its preliminary report on its investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation scam before the Supreme Court on February 10. "We had a few queries which remained to be answered. Raja was asked about these queries,'' CBI sources pointed out.

Raja's interrogation came on a day in which a crucial report on the 2G scam named him, besides his aide R K Chandolia and former telecom secretary Sidharth Behura for committing serious irregularities during the exercise.

While submitting his report to telecom minister Kapil Sibal, Justice (Retd.) Shivraj Patil said that he had fixed responsibility on certain officials and named them. "One of the terms of reference is if there is any shortcomings, lapse or deficiency in procedure, applying or following, who are the public officials they must be identified which I have done,'' he said.