Raja squirreled away Rs32,000 crore abroad, finds CBI

The questioning of arrested former telecom minister A Raja by the Central Bureau of Investigation continued for the second day on Friday. The CBI interrogated A Raja, his former private secretary R K Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behuria jointly.

Reports say the former telecom minister chose to remain silent and refused to acknowledge that he conspired to rob the exchequer of Rs22,000 crore, as alleged by the CBI. However, the names of certain former bureaucrats came to light and this could lead to more arrests soon. 

Reports say that the CBI's investigations at this stage focus on the bribe money that exchanged hands. Citing unnamed sources, CNN-IBN reports that a sum of Rs32,000 crore was found to be invested in Mauritus and Madagascar at Raja's behest.

The CBI has sent letter rogatories to five countries - Mauritus, Madagascar, the Isle of Man, the UAE and Cyprus. It is investigating the exact worth of the bribe that Raja and others were allegedly paid and also the role of the alleged bribe payers.

Shaid Usman Balwa, the chairman and managing director of DB-Etisalat, is likely to be the first in line of the private telecom players who could be interrogated, the report adds.

The CBI had told the court on Thursday that Swan Telecom, which later became DB-Etisalat, and Unitech together caused a loss of over Rs7000 crore to the exchequer.