Investigating agency to grill the tainted minister for two more days

Former Telecom Minister A Raja was on Tuesday remanded to two more days of CBI custody by a court here for further interrogation after the agency submitted that he was not divulging any "useful information" regarding his role in the 2G scam.

Former Telecom Minister A Raja before being produced at Patiala House court in New Delhi on Tuesday. Pic/Imtiyaz Khan

The agency said it did not want further custody of former telecom secretary Siddartha Behura and Raja's former personal secretary R K Chandolia. The two were sent to Tihar jail under judicial custody. The CBI produced Raja before Special CBI Judge O P Saini on expiry of his five day custody. The agency wanted custody for Raja for another four more days, but were given two days. "Some more documents are to be recovered and accused A Raja is to be confronted with them," senior CBI prosecutor Akhilesh submitted.
Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Raja, said the CBI remand application did not contain specific details of what interrogation of the former minister achieved.

The trio, arrested by the agency on February 2 for their alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, involving a loss of Rs 22,000 crore to the public exchequer as per the CVC estimates, were produced before the Special Judge following expiry of their five-day
custody with the CBI.