CBI begins grilling Raja for second day on Saturday

Former telecom minister A Raja reached the CBI headquarters on Saturday for a second day of questioning, after having been grilled yesterday for over nine hours.

Former telecom minister A Raja was on Friday questioned for over eight hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation on alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation - over a year after the agency registered a case in this connection.

The 47-year-old Raja, who had flown in to Delhi from Chennai on Wednesday, appeared before the agency headquarters at 10.30 am after he was summoned under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He was ''questioned in relation to the case registered into the allocation of unified access service licenses,'' CBI deputy inspector general and spokesperson Bineeta Thakur told reporters, adding that the process was continuing.

The CBI also quizzed him on the tapped conversation he had with corporate lobbyist Niira Radia about allegedly favouring certain telecom companies, reports said.

Raja was forced to resign on 14 November in the wake of a Comptroller and Auditor General report which held that the spectrum allocation at undervalued prices resulted in a notional loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.