Dec. 8: CBI officials, sources said, were conducting searches at the houses of Mr Raja’s brother and sister at Srirangam and Tiruvanaikaval. Apart from CBI sleuths, income-tax investigators also swooped on the premises of Mr Raja and his aides in Chennai and Perambalur.
It was learnt that the CBI is expected to make arrests in connection with the scam. The CBI director, Mr A.P. Singh, said “no one has been arrested yet”. The CBI had earlier registered a case against unknown officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and representatives of certain private companies in connection with the award of unified access service (UAS) licences last year.
A team of nearly 87 CBI sleuths began operations early Wednesday morning at the Delhi and Chennai residences of Mr Raja and other DoT officials. In Delhi, raids were carried out at the residences of former telecom secretary, Mr Siddartha Behuria, the former personal secretary to Mr Raja, Mr Chandolia, the telecom commission member, Mr K. Sridhar, and the DoT deputy director-general, Mr A.K. Srivastava.
Agency officials revealed that Mr Behuria was quizzed about “licensing procedures”.
It was learnt that Mr Behuria told CBI officials that the decision to hand over licences to allottees had been taken before he had become telecom secretary. The CBI is now expected to summon Mr Chandolia for questioning. He was earlier questioned by the Enforcement Directorate, which is also looking into the scam.
At Chennai, “over 15 officials, split into different teams, have been scanning the accounts of Mr Raja’s aides since afternoon”, an I-T official disclosed. Over a dozen I-T men from the department’s Tiruchy office are conducting searches in the houses and premises of Mr Raja’s brother and other family members. An eight-member team, led by the DSP, Mr Surendran, searched the house at Velur village, about 20 km from Perambalur, till 11.30 am and then checked the accounts at Canara Bank, located near the municipal office in Perambalur, till 3 pm. Also, a five-member team headed by the inspector, Mr Mohanan, raided the residence of the ex-minister’s business associate, Mr Basha, at Bharathidasan Nagar, on Elambalur Road in Perambalur, and his real estate office near Kamaraj Arch in Perambalur.