The Delhi High Court has extended the custody of A. Raja, former Minister of Telecommunications and IT by two days. Prior to this, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had asked the court for a four-day extension. Raja has already spent five days in custody.
Raja was arrested on February 2, 2011 by the CBI in connection with the 2G spectrum issue. Also arrested were R.K. Chandolia, his personal secretary and Siddhartha Behura, former secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The CBI did not seek to extend their custody.
It is believed that the CBI told the court that it needed to extensively question Raja to establish his link to the money trail in the 2G issue. In the last court hearing on February 3, 2011, the CBI explained why it has accused Raja of criminal conspiracy. The sum of the parts played by Raja and his associates, according to the CBI, equals Rs. 220 billion. The CBI also said that in 2008, when the government was allocating 2G spectrum for mobile phone networks, the trio bent the rules to benefit a few companies, especially Swan and Unitech.
The licenses for 2G spectrum were auctioned on a first-come-first-served policy which was set by his predecessors. The CBI’s case, however, is based on his office advancing the deadline for payments and informing only select players. Companies like Swan and Unitech seemed to have been tipped off to this, because despite the cut-off date being brought forward, they had their payments ready.
After winning their licenses, Swan and Unitech sold equity to foreign companies much before they began the rollout of their services. The substantial profits they made seemed to underscore the point that spectrum had been sold far too cheaply by the government.
