After searching his home,CBI gets ready to question Raja

Multiple CBI teams today searched 14 premises connected with A Raja in the National Capital Region and Tamil Nadu,including the official residence of the former telecom minister in New Delhi. Investigators spoke with Raja during the search,sources said,and he will be formally questioned in the next couple of days.Rajas former personal secretary R K Chandolia and the managing director of the Chennai-based real estate firm Green House Promoters Pvt Ltd,A M Sadhick Batcha,were among several other individuals whose homes and offices were searched. Among those searched were several relatives of Raja. Investigators were questioning Batcha till late on Wednesday evening,sources in the CBI said. Batcha is thought to be the key link in transactions involving investments made by Raja and his wife,M A Parameswari,in several firms including Green House,Equaas Estates,Kovai Sheltors and Shivakhamam Traders. Two hundred gold sovereigns were recovered from Batchas home,CBI sources said.Chandolia was detained in Delhi,and was being continuously questioned till late in the evening. Several CBI teams were present at Rajas Motilal Nehru Marg residence in New Delhi.The CBI first registered a case in the multi-crore 2G spectrum allocation scam allegedly involving Raja over a year ago. Raja resigned last month after the Comptroller and Auditor General said that irregularities in the allocation of spectrum could have resulted in an estimated loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the nation.The CBI operation,which began at dawn,has produced several incriminating documents. Searches conducted so far have yielded incriminating documents but there is no formal interrogation yet, DIG Vineeta Thakur,the CBI spokesperson,said in Delhi. CBI Director A P Singh declined to give details of recoveries. There are raids going on. The details not be shared as of now, he said.

An eight-member CBI team knocked at Rajas ancestral home in Velur village of Tamil Nadus Perambalur district at 7.30 this morning,and questioned the former ministers elder brother A Kaliaperumal and a relative.

The officers then went to the local Canara Bank and spent about an hour poring over details of accounts held by members of Rajas family,sources said. However,no documents are believed to have been found at either Rajas home or the bank.

In Chennai,separate CBI teams searched the homes of Rajas sister,mother-in-law,and a businessman said to be close to him.

Five investigators reached Batchas home in Chennai in two vehicles,and took him away in one. His home and office were searched,and his brother Jaffer Ali was taken to the office of their local firm Sadhick Real Estate,from where some documents were reportedly seized. One of Rajas nephews,R P Paramesh Kumar,is the joint managing director of Green House Promoters; a second nephew,R Ramganesh,is a director. Rajas wife Parameswari resigned from the companys board after the connection threatened to became a political liability for Raja. Also searched today were former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behuria,former Telecom Commission member K Sridhar,and former Deputy Director General in the Access Service Wing of the DoT,A K Srivastava.