The CBI, which is investigating the 2G spectrum scam, on Saturday reportedly put direct questions to former telecom minister A. Raja and also confronted him with documents recovered during the searches mentioning the details of licence fee collected from the service providers.
The CBI officials reportedly questioned Mr Raja about the purpose of the letter (No. 1-21/2009LF, dated October 23, 2009) of the DoT along with details of the licence fee collected from new service providers. This three page letter of the DoT was recovered by the CBI during the searches conducted in 2009, sources added.
“Mr Raja was also asked very specific questions related to the document pertaining to Swan Telecom seized on December 7, 2010. The agency officials also recovered a letter dated December 8, 2009, along with details of bank accounts of different companies from the DoT office”. Mr Raja was quizzed on the need for keeping the details of bank accounts of different companies by the DoT, sources added.
The CBI officials had also recovered a nine-page e-mail (dated December 11, 2009) along with details of bank accounts from the office of the CBI. “Former telecom minister was also asked to explain the reasons of keeping these details by the DoT officials”, sources said.
Sources added that Mr Raja was not as cooperative with the agency officials as he had been on Thursday and Friday. His relatives and friends, who were present at the CBI headquarters on Saturday, said that Mr Raja complained of stomach ache also. The CBI on Saturday allowed former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, who was also arrested along with Mr Raja on Wednesday, to see his wife Anju Behura, who underwent an operation for cancer.