A RAJA RAIDED

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Former telecom minister A. Raja during a CBI raid at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday. PHOTO: Biplab Banerjee

The CBI on Wednesday carried out searches at 14 places, including at the residences of former telecom minister A. Raja’s in Delhi and Chennai, in connection with the 2G spectrum scam investigation. A large number of incriminating documents were seized during the searches, sources said.
CBI officials also raided the premises of four telecom officials, including Mr Raja’s former personal secretary, Mr R.K. Chandolia. The raids have taken the CBI a step closer to questioning Mr Raja in the spectrum scam, which caused the government exchequer a loss of `1.76 lakh crore.
[Mr Raja was questioned by CBI sleuths during the raids, PTI reports. CBI sources said some questions were put to Mr Raja during the searches at his Delhi home. The DMK leader may be subjected to a formal questioning later, the sources said.]
The raids, which began Wednesday morning, were being conducted at Mr Raja’s ancestral home and the office of a trust run by his family in his native Perambalur district in Tamil Nadu, and the residences of his relatives and associates in Chennai, official sources said. The sleuths picked up Mr Raja’s close aide, Mr Sadiq Basha, who runs Green House Promoters, from his house in Teynampet, Chennai, for questioning.
Sources said CBI officials were also 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. CBI director 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 Siddartha Behuria, former personal secretary to Mr Raja, Mr Chandolia, telecom commission member K. Sridhar and DoT deputy director-general 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 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 DSP 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 inspector Mohanan raided the residence of the ex-minister’s business associate, Basha, at Bharathidasan Nagar, on Elambalur Road in Perambalur, and his real estate office near Kamaraj Arch in Perambalur.