Trio spends night in CBI lock-up, more arrests likely

The CBI on Wednesday arrested A Raja, his former private secretary RK Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, for their role in the issuance of allegedly motivated Letters of Intent (LoI) in January 2008 that resulted in favouring certain telecom companies in 2G allocation.

The CBI on Wednesday arrested A Raja, his former private secretary RK Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, for their role in the issuance of allegedly motivated Letters of Intent (LoI) in January 2008 that resulted in favouring certain telecom companies in 2G allocation.

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The trio will spend the night at a CBI lock-up at its headquarters. Raja, Chandolia and Behura were allegedly “evasive” in their replies to the CBI earlier, which contributed to their arrest.

Raja, who was had been interrogated thrice by the CBI, arrived at the headquarters around 10 am and was arrested six hours later alongwith Chandolia and Behura.

“...There will be more arrests when the probe handles aspects like the illegal payoffs and the money trail,” said a CBI source.

The source added, “The custodial interrogation of the three will give us leads about the payoffs and specific role of other co-accused.”

The agency will approach a Delhi court on Thursday for CBI custody of the three.

In January 2008, Raja and the other two were allegedly instrumental in a DoT decision to issue LoI to only those applicants who had applied up to September 25, 2007. The trio were also behind the decision to allocate the spectrum and licences on a first-come-first-served basis.

“On January 10, 2008, the DoT through a press release issued at 2.45 pm directed the applicants to assemble at the headquarter to collect the DoT response to their LoI. The eligible LoI holders were then directed to submit compliance of the terms of LoI ...” said a CBI source.