New Delhi:
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in New Delhi on Thursday allowed the Income Tax department to interrogate former Telecom Minister A Raja in connection with the 2G scam.
CBI special court judge OP Saini gave the go ahead for the interrogation of Raja, Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka, its promoter Shahid Usman Balwa and Reliance Group executives Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.
"The I-T department can interrogate all six from July 27 to 29," Saini said.
On Wednesday, the CBI court dismissed the plea of Raja opposing the start of arguments on the framing of charges.
The decision came after the agency and the defence counsels told the court that they have supplied all documents annexed with the two chargesheets in the case.
Meanwhile, the CBI strongly opposed the plea of former Telecom Minister A Raja's private secretary RK Chandolia that the agency lacked sanction to prosecute him in the 2G case.
In its reply filed in the court, the CBI termed Chandolia's plea as "frivolous" and sought its dismissal after imposition of a heavy penalty.
Chandolia had accused the CBI of not having any order of a competent authority under the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act to probe the case against him.
Charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and corruption have been levelled against Raja, Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa, among others.
The CBI's first chargesheet on April 2 named Raja, Behura, Chandolia, Shahid, Swan Telecom director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless's Sanjay Chandra and three executives of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group -- Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.
In its April 25 supplementary chargesheet, the CBI named DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar as co-conspirators after it traced an illegal money trail of Rs.214 crore in the scam.
The supplementary chargesheet also named Cineyug Films founder Karim Morani and Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Aggarwal of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd.
The CBI had, in its first chargesheet, accused Raja, eight other people well as three companies of causing a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer.