A Raja's international links under scanner by CBI

New Delhi, Feb 5: Former Telecom Minister A Raja is a concerned man after the CBI extended his remand for the purpose of interrogation for 5 more days. With the 2G spectrum scam stealing the limelight, the revelations of Raja could give insights into how the large sums of money involved was siphoned off in the spectrum allocation controversy.

Raja has chosen to remain silent on his alleged involvement on the scam till now. The CBI claimed recently that the scam was worth Rs 22,000 crore rather than 1.76 lakh crore reported otherwise. Investigations are on whether the amount has been parked abroad and how the alleged bribe transacted between Raja's offices and the Telecom companies.

The CBI also claimed that a whopping sum of Rs 32,000 crore was invested in Mauritius and Madagascar under Raja's instructions. They have apparently sent letters to representatives of five countries including Mauritius, Madagascar, Isle of man, UAE and Cyprus to investigate the matter further.

Reports are doing the rounds that the Chief Managing Director of DB-Etisalat, Shaid Usman Balwa is likely to be questioned next by the CBI and will have the dubious distinction of being the first private Telecom operator to be investigated under the multi-crore scam. The CBI had earlier pointed out that Swan Telecom that sold a majority of its stake to Etisalat and Unitech alone caused a drain of Rs 7000 crore to the country's exchequer.

The Department of Telecommunications is also under the scanner for being hand-in-glove with Raja carrying out a scam of such magnitude. Friday, Feb 4 saw the questioning of director general DoT, A K Srivastav as well. The charges against him being that the letter of intent was issued to private Telecom companies that was a blatant flouting of government policy.

OneIndia News