Raja, Radia may be grilled again by CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation 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 2G spectrum scam under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

Raja, 47, was questioned for 16 hours on Friday and Saturday. Sources say his answers were not satisfactory on queries related to the controversial advancement of dates for allocation of spectrum and alleged funding of some telecom companies by his kin, official sources said here.

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

The CBI questioning also focused on tapped conversations 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 December 15.

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 have been told by the Supreme Court to finish the probe by February next year. They held a meeting today, the sources said.

Letters Rogatory (formal request for help from a court here to a foreign one) would also be sent to at least three countries, including Singapore, to know about the financial trail in the scam, said sources. CBI believes some relatives of the DMK leader may be involved.

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 OSA after it claimed to have found copies of certain classified government documents from 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”.