A special CBI judge on Thursday granted the Central Bureau of Investigation five-day custody (till February 7) of former telecom minister A. Raja, his personal secretary, R.K. Chandolia, and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura.
The three men were arrested by the CBI on Wednesday in New Delhi in connection with allegations of wrongdoing in the allotment of 2G spectrum.
Senior public prosecutor Akhilesh, appearing for the CBI, told special CBI judge O.P. Saini that the three accused have allegedly caused the public exchequer a loss of `22,000 crore and that joint interrogation of the three accused was needed. Seeking sustained custodial interrogation of the accused for five days to unearth the entire criminal conspiracy, Mr Akhilesh told the court that two private telecom companies were allegedly favoured and had made huge profits by selling their stakes to other companies at high prices even as a loss of `7,105 crore was caused to the exchequer.
One of these firms bought licences for 22 circles for `1,658 crore and sold 67 per cent of the equity to Telenor for `6,100 crore. Similarly, the other bought licences for 13 circles for `1,537 crore and sold 45 per cent of equity to Etisalat for `4,200 crore.
The CBI counsel told the court the bidding process was not adopted as per rules so there were losses. He added that changes in first-come-first-serve basis provisions were made to help others.
The counsel also informed the court that there were allegations of favouritism in granting licenses and awarding spectrum. Oppo-sing the plea of the Central Bureau of Investigation,senior criminal lawyer Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Mr Raja and Mr Chandolia, pleaded that the CBI’s estimates of losses were imaginary. Mr Gupta argued before the court that the loss figures were imaginary as the profits that Swan and Unitech made were meant for further investment and infrastructure development from which the government would have gained, and, therefore, there was no loss to the exchequer.
Mr Gupta contended that from day one, when the CBI had asked Mr Raja about his alleged involvement, he has cooperated fully with the agency. He has, in fact, voluntarily appeared before the CBI for questioning. “So what really necessitated the CBI to arrest him and again take him into its custody,” Mr Gupta asked.
Mr Gupta argued that the CBI’s job was to collect evidence, if any, against Mr Raja. He contended that the arrest of Mr Raja should have been the last option as the former minister was not hiding anything. “Even the agency has not pointed out that Raja was hiding some papers or any incriminating evidence which could go against him in the case,” he argued, adding that mandatory requirements have to be complied with before seeking custody.
Special judge Saini granted the CBI custody of the three for five days after allowing Mr Gupta a 10-minute private conversation with the former minister. Wearing a grey safari suit, the 47-year-old DMK MP appeared cool and composed and greeted the judge with folded hands when the judge called out his name as an accused.
The court also directed the CBI to get the accused medically examined every 48 hours and also said their lawyers were at liberty to meet them for half an hour daily at a time convenient to both parties. The court allowed Mr Behura’s application to meet his wife, Mrs Anju Behura, who is set to undergo an operation on February 5 at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, before and after the operation.
Raja was medically examined by a team of doctors at Safdarjung Hospital at 6 am on Thursday before being produced in court at around 2.10 pm.
Earlier, some CBI officials allegedly heckled some photojournalists while the three were being taken to the Patiala House courts.
The accused have been arrested under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC besides being booked under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act pertaining to abuse of official position and unduly favouring private companies in 2G spectrum allocation.