Raja, Radia may be grilled again by CBI in 2G spectrum scam

Raja, Radia may be grilled again by CBI in 2G spectrum scam

The CBI is likely to again question former Telecom Minister A Raja, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and others even as the probe agency may book some of the people questioned in connection with the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam under the Official Secrets Act.

Raja, who was grilled for 16 hours on last Friday and Saturday, is likely to be quizzed again as he failed to give satisfactory answers to queries related to controversial advancement of dates for allocation of spectrum and alleged funding of some of the telecom companies by his kin, official sources said in New Delhi.

The 47-year-old DMK leader was asked to clarify the contents of certain documents, seized by the agency during its raids on Department of Telecom offices in October last year after registering a case against unknown officers of DoT and telecom companies.

The CBI questioning also focused on tapped conversation of Radia as it sought more details and clarifications from him, the sources said.

Radia, who was quizzed at her farmhouse earlier this week for four hours, is likely to again face the CBI sleuths who claimed to have recovered some documents from computers seized from her office during searches on 15th December.

The CBI is also planning to question again some of the former bureaucrats and alleged hawala operators it had grilled earlier.

The CBI and Enforcement Directorate, which have been told by the Supreme Court to finish the probe by February next year, held a meeting during which efforts to give momentum to the process of tracing funds were discussed by the sleuths, the sources said.

Letters Rogatory (LR) would also be sent to at least three countries including Singapore by the CBI to know about the financial trail in the multi-crore scam as the agency has alleged that some of the relatives of the DMK leader were associated with the case.

In a related move, the CBI is likely to book some of the people whose premises were searched in connection with the 2G scam under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) after it claimed to have found copies of certain classified government documents from the computers seized during the raids.

The sources said legal opinion was being sought on whether some of the people could be booked under the OSA for procuring sensitive documents classified as "secret", "confidential" and "restricted".

The CBI had questioned Niira Radia for four hours on 21st December, 2010 at her farmhouse in south Delhi on her alleged role in the Rs 22,000-crore 2G spectrum scam.

Radia was asked about her bank transactions and her conversations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which grilled her on allegations of money laundering last month.