Pulled up for ‘slow work’, agency now working hard to trace missing link between scam money and former telecom minister.
How exactly did former telecom minister A Raja benefit from the 2G spectrum allocation scam? Investigating agencies are finding it difficult to connect the scam amount — Rs1.76 lakh crore, according to the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) and Rs22,000 crore, according to the central vigilance commission — directly to the DMK leader. For now, they are working on the suspicion that some of his associates may have stakes in a few of the telecom companies that benefited from the scam.
The CBI suspects that Raja and corporate lobbyist Niira Radia have some equity interest in at least one of the telecom companies. According to a senior CBI officer close to the investigation, the agency has collected documents from all the companies and is scrutinising them thoroughly.
“Till now, we have not come across any direct evidence against DMK leader Raja to nail him in the scam,” the CBI officer said.
The CBI is in the process of issuing a Letter Rogatory to several tax havens — countries like Cyprus, Mauritius and others — in an attempt to ascertain whether the former minister or any of his family members had links with foreign money deposited there.
The investigation has gained momentum after the apex court hauled up the CBI for being slow. It took up the case on October 21 last.
The agency has already questioned officials of Unitech Wireless, Swan Telecom, S Tel, Tata Tele Services and Data Com services. “Besides telecom companies, we are also questioning several top officials of the department of telecommunication about their alleged benami stakes in certain foreign-based subsidiaries,’’ the CBI official added.
Several former top bureaucrats are also under the scanner for joining lobbyist Radia’s firm without waiting for the cooling off period required to join a private company after retiring from government to be over. “Who gave them permission to join immediately after serving in key positions for decades? Their decisions on the files will also be under the scanner,’’ he said.
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