A Raja, 2 aides sent to 5-day custody

Former telecom minister A Raja and his two former aides - former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and personal secretary RK Chandolia were remanded to a five-day custody by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in New Delhi in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. "The prayer of police custody is justified and all three accused are accordingly remanded to police custody till Feb 8," special CBI judge O.P. Saini said in a statement. Raja was on Feb. 3 presented in the Patiala House court along with his two aides.



"We will also be filing a formal charge sheet against the three accused within 60 days," a senior CBI officer said. "There could be further arrests." The allegation against the three accused are that they allotted the unified access service licences in violation of rules and procedures and caused huge loss estimated to be Rs 220bn to the Government, Saini said.

"The allegation against the trio are very serious on the face of it and required no elaboration. Accordingly, considering the nature of the allegation, seriousness and gravity of offences, there is a consequent need of interrogation of the accused persons," he added.

Separately, the Supreme Court made it clear that the CAG report cannot be the only basis for cancellation of licences for the 2G spectrum and any decision taken by the Government on the issue will be subject to the outcome of the petitions pending before it. "Everything the Government does after filing of the petition, is subject to the outcome of the petitions,'' a Bench comprising Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly said. "We do not know what they are doing. But if they do, it is subject to the outcome of our order,'' the Bench said.

The remarks by the Bench came on the plea by an NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) which was seeking a direction to the Government for restraining it from regularising the licence of the telecom companies which failed to meet the roll-out obligations. The NGO's counsel, Prashant Bhushan, said that the Government was regularising the licences of the companies by imposing penalties on the companies.

The Bench further said: "If the licences are going to be cancelled, it cannot be cancelled only on the basis of the CAG report.'' The apex court was hearing two petitions filed by the CPIL and the Janata Party chief, Subramanian Swamy, seeking cancellation of the licences of 2G spectrum allotted during the tenure of Raja on the ground that there were large-scale irregularities on the allocation. The court posted the hearing on the petitions for March 1.