Indian ex-telecoms minister Raja appears in court

BBC News, 3 February 2011 

Former Indian telecoms minister A Raja has been remanded in custody facing charges of involvement in one of the country's biggest corruption scandals.

Mr Raja (centre) is seen leaving
CBI headquarters for court

Mr Raja and two officials were arrested on Wednesday and are to be held for five days, a Delhi court ordered.

All three are alleged to have undersold mobile phone licences, costing the country billions of dollars in lost revenue. All three men deny wrongdoing.

The scandal has caused outrage and damaged the government's reputation.

Mr Raja belongs to the DMK party, which is an ally of the ruling Congress party.

He was forced to quit in November after it emerged that 2G spectrum licences had been sold for a fraction of their value.

Auditors estimate the mis-selling of the licences cost the exchequer nearly $40bn (£24.5bn) in lost revenue.

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Mr Raja, his aide RK Chandolia and former telecommunications secretary Siddharth Behuria are being held by India's federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"Undue favour was given in the allocation of licences and spectrum," a CBI lawyer told Patiala House court in the capital.

"Certain companies were favoured."

The scandal has been front-page news in India for months.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under pressure to explain why he did not act sooner in the case.

It took police until December to question Mr Raja.