The CBI on Friday confronted Shahid Usman Balwa, MD of DB Realty and a promoter of Swan Telecom, with the former telecom minister A. Raja for the second consecutive day and quizzed them directly in relation to the share-holding pattern of Swan Telecom.

Arrest of former Organising Committee (OC) chairman Suresh Kalmadi’s aide Deorukhar Shekhar’s by CBI sleuths might provide a missing link to Comptroller Auditor General for India (CAG) in concluding audit report on Commonwealth Games for the submission in the Parliament. The CAG’s audit on the Games will be tabled in the Parliament in the coming session. However, senior CAG officials refused to comment on the issue.

Questioning the timing of allegations levelled against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by former telecom minister Arun Shourie, the Congress dubbed his move as a diversionary tactic, as no communication ever took place between him and Dr Singh. Mr Shourie is reported to have claimed that he had informed the Prime Minister of DMK leader A. Raja’s “loot” nearly 17 months ago.

The main Opposition BJP on Friday asked government to bring the motion for the formation of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on February 22. The BJP and other Opposition parties have been demanding the JPC probe into corruption issues, including 2G spectrum allocation. The party also clarified that it will not boycott the

The Congress media managers on Friday held deliberations on how to project the party’s image in a better way in public as the Opposition braces to attack the ruling combine on the issue of corruption inside and outside Parliament.

Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who is under attack from the Opposition for land scams, on Friday said he would bring out a “chargesheet” against JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and his family members on the issue of land scams. Declaring that his government would last a full five-year term, the Karnataka chief minister claimed the BJP top brass is “happy about my performance”.

The Congress on Friday dismissed suggestions that formation of NR Congress in Puducherry and YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh would have an adverse impact on the party.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the RSS has sought for setting up an independent commission to probe an alleged plot to assassinate its chief Mohan Bhagwat and other senior leaders by Col. Srikant Purohit and Dayanand Pandey, both accused in the Malegaon blast case.

The Amar Singh phone tapping case on Friday took a new turn with the Supreme Court taking serious view of Reliance Communications putting his phone on surveillance on a forged letter of the Delhi home secretary and asked the Centre why the licence of the service provider was not cancelled for such a casual approach.

The political circle in the capital is abuzz with apprehensions of next year’s MCD elections not being held at all, after the Delhi government constituted a political committee on restructuring of the civic body. The Delhi government has three instances of the MCD being kept without political leadership, after it was administered directly by the municipal commissioner for over 12 years since 1975 in the absence of elections.