CBI aware of identity of bribe money handler: Arun Shourie

In a startling new revelation on the 2G spectrum scam, BJP leader and former telecom minister Arun Shourie claims that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is fully aware of the identity of the individual who handled the bribe money in the telecom ministry.

Shourie says it is a mystery why that person has not be questioned till date.

In an interaction with Shekhar Gupta on NDTV's Walk the Talk, Shourie said the CBI clearly knows the identities of the front companies that were used to in the 2G scam.

Shourie claimed that an investigating officer had said that companies' representatives would bring the note for Raja to sign on a pen drive to a telecom ministry official, who would take out a print out for Raja to sign.

Meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the allotment of 2G spectrum licences was tabled in the Lok Sabha yesterday, indicting former telecom minister A Raja on many counts for violations, including favoritism, which resulted in a loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore the government on 2G spectrum allocation in 2008.

"85 of the 122 licenses were issued to companies which suppressed facts, disclosed incomplete information and submitted fictitious documents to the Department of Telecom (DoT) and thus used fraudulent means of getting licenses and thereby access to spectrum" - this is one of the more biting conclusions of the report prepared by the government's auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).