After DoT raid, CBI widens net to cover 10 companies

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which raided the offices of the Department of Telecommunications on Thursday, today widened its net to include companies in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, and Mohali in the North as well as Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Mumbai in Western India and Chennai in the South as well.

The DoT – and by implication minister for information and communications A Raja, whose ministry directly controls the department – seem firmly in the crosshairs of the enforcement authorities for alleged corruption "in the award of unified access services licenses (UASL) to private companies."

There has been much controversy over the award of radio spectrum to new players at throwaway prices. A couple of the new companies sold a portion of their spectrum at a huge profit soon after obtaining it. The Central Vigilance Commission, the union government's chief watchdog, recently asked CBI to probe the matter. (See: CBI raids DoT offices over fishy spectrum allocation)

Today's searches in about 19 places involving 10 companies carry on from searches yesterday in the wireless planning cell (WPC) and in the office of Deputy Director General (Access Services), at DoT's headquarters in Sanchar Nigam, New Delhi. The agency has registered corruption cases against "unknown" DoT officials and "unknown private persons/companies and others".

"Details are still awaited," Harsh Bhal, spokesman for the CBI, said, refusing to disclose details of the companies raided.
DoT officials remain tight-lipped, but Raja continues to deny any wrongdoing. The ruling UPA too is standing by him, at least officially.

"Licences were issued in accordance with the law. I had no external pressure to deviate from the law," Raja said. The Congress party indicated that it will not seek any direct action against Raja, saying the FIR only named officials. ''The whole matter is still under investigation," party spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters.

Meanwhile, opposition parties demanded that Raja be sacked to allow a fair probe into the alleged corruption in spectrum allocation. "The spectrum allocation scam runs into thousands of crores of rupees. This is the first time that the CBI has raided the offices of a minister. There is no reason - moral, ethical or political - for him to continue as communications minister," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.