King no more - CBI raids A Raja's Delhi, Chennai residences
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday carried out raids on the residences of former Telecom Minister A Raja in Delhi and Chennai, along with the residences of four top Telecom ministry officials.
The raids are being carried out at the residences of former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's personal secretary R K Chandolia, Telecom (member) K Sridhar and Deputy Director General (DoT) A K Srivastava. The searches began in the morning and were still going on at the time of writing, with the CBI remaining mum on what it was looking for.
Surrounded by scams
This is not the only controversy surrounding the former Telecom minister. He was at the centre of yet another one just yesterday when a division bench of the Madras High Court suspended from the Bar the chairman of the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry Bar Council, R K Chandramohan, allegedly involved in an attempt to influence a judge by taking the minister's name.
Chandramohan was suspended after he allegedly tried to act as a conduit between Raja, then the IT and Communications Minister, and a judge to ensure that the anticipatory bail petition of a father-son duo close to Raja was considered favourably by the court. Chandramohan was the counsel representing Dr C Krishnamurthy and his son Kiruba Sridhar, an MBBS student of Pondicherry University, who faced charges of fudging marksheets. The minister, the advocate and the doctor all hail from Perambalur district.
The CBI action follows the Comptroller and Auditor General's report that faulted Raja for under-valuing the 2G spectrum allocated in 2008, putting the notional loss to the exchequer at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Raja was forced to resign as Telecom Minister on November 14 after weeks of opposition pressure that has washed out the winter session of Parliament.
The Supreme Court, which is hearing cases related to the 2G scam, has come down heavily on the CBI recently, asking why Raja had not been questioned and why officials in the know, like the former Telecom Secretary, had not been examined. Raja denies any wrongdoing and has welcomed the CBI investigation, saying his innocence will be proven.
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