Vinod Rai was 'contract killer' hired to kill UPA-2 government, should be prosecuted: A Raja

DMK leader A Raja charged on Saturday that former CAG Vinod Rai was a "contract killer" hired to kill the UPA-2 government, and called for his prosecution for "abusing" the power and "cheating" the entire nation and the media.

"He should be prosecuted for cheating and abuse of power... (he) was a contract killer... His shoulder was used to kill UPA 2," said the Telecom Minister in the Congress-led UPA-II government, at the launch of his book "2G Saga Unfolds" in New Delhi.

"He was not a killer but a murderer, who carried a gun and openly killed democracy. If he has any morality left, he should at least apologise." The book makes detailed claims of how he was made a scapegoat in the 2G spectrum case.

In December, he and another senior DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP, MK Kanimozhi, were exonerated by Special CBI Judge OP Saini in all 2G spectrum allocation scam cases.

The then comptroller and auditor general (CAG) Rai had came out with a report in 2010 which pegged a notional loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the national exchequer due to 2G spectrum allocation in 2008 when Raja was the Telecom Minister.

Raja accused Rai of hatching a conspiracy to play out figure of astronomical losses to the exchequer without having the technical knowledge of arriving at that figure. Raja said the Supreme Court also unfortunately went by the CAG account.

"Problem arose when the Supreme Court endorsed the CAG report. Were there any other documents with the Supreme Court? No, there was none," said Raja, questioning the court's role.

He claimed that the genesis of the 2G conspiracy might have started with a corporate war to corner spectrum benefits but it soon became a political game.

Raja said the BJP and Narendra Modi, who was a PM candidate then, were the biggest beneficiaries of the 2G conspiracy that did not exist and added that the verdict given by judge of the special CBI court is going to prove a boon for the DMK besides benefiting the Congress.

Sidestepping questions with which national political party the DMK would be aligning now, Raja said, it is for the top leadership to decide but the DMK stands for secular values and believes 100% in what the preamble of the constitution says about India being a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.

Raja said he does have a little grievance against Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukerjee and P Chidambaram for not coming out in his support and instead getting bogged down by unwarranted and sarcastic comments by the Supreme Court and a screaming media and the political attack.