2G scam: CBI remand of Raja, Balwa ends today

New Delhi: The CBI remand of former Telecom Minister A Raja and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa ends on Monday. Raja and Balwa are expected to be released from the CBI custody.

Both Raja and Balwa were in custody for the last four days after the CBI sought an extension of their remand for interrogation.

A CBI court on Thursday had remanded Raja and Balwa to CBI custody till Monday.

The order by CBI special judge O P Saini was in response to a petition by the investigating agency seeking an extension of four more days of police custody for Raja and a fresh remand (of four days) for Balwa.

CBI petitioned that the investigation was at a very crucial stage and sustained custodial interrogation and confrontation of both accused were essential.

Raja and Balwa have been arrested by the CBI for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam.

Balwa's counsel had opposed the CBI plea, terming it illegal. According to his submission, Balwa had joined the investigation and attended the office of CBI as and when he was called upon.

Raja's counsel also opposed the extended remand. Balwa has been accused of being a beneficiary of the favourable policy decisions taken by Raja in relation to 2G licenses.

Raja, along with the then telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and private secretary R K Chandolia were accused of criminal conspiracy that led to the abuse of their official positions as public servant in the process of granting letters of intent for unified access service license (2G license) to the applicant telecom companies and a subsequent allocation of spectrum for launching their telecom services in the country.

While Behura and Chandolia were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days, Raja was remanded to police custody for two days that ended on Thursday.

Balwa was arrested from his house in Mumbai on February 8 and was taken to Delhi on a two-day transit remand.

CBI alleged that after the spectrum allocation there was a cash transaction of Rs 214 crore from Cineyug Films Pvt Ltd to Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd. Cineyug Films arranged the funds from the DB Group of companies where the family members of Balwa are directors or shareholders, the CBI petition said.