Court allows Raja to make Tamil Nadu trip

A special court, hearing the 2G spectrum allocation case, today allowed prime accused and former telecom minister A Raja to visit Tamil Nadu for three days.

A special court, hearing the 2G spectrum allocation case, on Friday allowed prime accused and former telecom minister A Raja to visit Tamil Nadu for three days.

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Central Bureau of Investigation special judge OP Saini allowed Raja to visit the state from Friday evening till Aug 20.

CBI did not oppose Raja's plea seeking to visit the state.

The court in its May 15 order directed that Raja could not visit the department of telecommunications or Tamil Nadu without its prior permission.

Meanwhile testifying as a prosecution witness in the case, former deputy director general (access service) in the DoT AK Srivastava said that in a Nov 22, 2007 letter to the then telecom secretary DS Mathur, then finance secretary D Subba Rao had expressed his concern at 2001 rates being followed in 2007 for the allocation of spectrum.

His response came when he was shown a DoT file, containing a note dealing with the letter.

Raja resigned as minister Nov 14, 2010 in the wake of the comptroller and auditor general reporting that his 2008 decision to allocate 2G spectrum on a first-come-first-served basis had caused the exchequer a presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. The CBI arrested him Feb 2, 2011.