Former telecom minister A. Raja was remanded to three more days of CBI custody by a Delhi court on Monday for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam along with Swam telecom-promoter, Shahid Usman Balwa, whose custody was extended by four days.
The CBI submitted to the court that the agency had added two more Sections 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the accused duo.
Not taking the allegations of Mr Raja strongly that the CBI was being driven by political motive instead of probing the case against him, special judge O.P. Saini remanded Mr Raja and Mr Balwa to the CBI’s custody till February 17, saying that the crime is “enormous”.
Senior criminal lawyer Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Mr Raja, strongly opposed the CBI remand, and said, “What is the purpose of police custody? (It’s not clear) whether they (CBI) want it for unearthing the conspiracy or have political motive. The CBI should not make it a political game and they should investigate only.”
Mr Gupta said, there is no justification for extension of police custody remand.
Seeking extension of remand, senior public prosecutor Akhilesh, said both the accused were confronted with each other during the custodial interrogation but they were “evasive in their replies”. The CBI, in its remand application, said, both the accused have been evasive in their replies and as such, their interrogation could not be completed. In this case, the documents are quite voluminous and the nature of the case is quite difficult and complicated. As such, their interrogation could not be completed.
Opposing the CBI’s plea for extension of Mr Balwa’s custody, lawyer Vijay Aggarwal argued that his client was engaged in bonafide commercial transactions and had not violated any law. He was innocent in the case.
During the hearing on its plea for extension of the remand for Raja and Balwa, the CBI said the duo needed to be confronted with some more documents recovered by it.
“It is an important case. Vastness of the documents and ramifications of this case are wide, so we need further custodial interrogation of the accused,” the CBI said.