New Delhi:
NDTV has learnt that, as part of its investigation into the 2G spectrum scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be questioning Kanimozhi, Rajya Sabha MP and daughter of DMK Supremo M Karunanidhi.
Sources say that they will give Kanimozhi the option of being questioned at her residence - in Delhi or in Chennai - instead of summoning her to the CBI headquarters. But coming in the midst of the Budget Session and just ahead of Tamil Nadu elections, it is likely to cause major embarrassment for the DMK.
CBI sources say that they need to question her about Swan Telecom's 200-crore loan to Kalaignar TV - which is owned largely by Kanimozhi and her step-mother Dayalu Ammal.
The investigating agency had raided the Chennai-based channel on February 18 this year. Swan - promoted by a Mumbai entrepreneur named Shahid Balwa - was one of the companies that allegedly paid former Telecom Minister and DMK leader A Raja kickbacks in return for being granted mobile network licenses in 2008. Mr Balwa and Mr Raja have both been arrested.
The 200-core payment to Kalaignar TV was allegedly one of the kickback being routed by Swan to Mr Raja. However, the TV channel has emphasized that the payment was meant to be an investment that was returned after a difference in evaluation over equity.
"I haven't got any summons from the CBI. Kalaignar TV has already explained that they have nothing to hide," Kanimozhi had said after the CBI raided her TV station on February 18.
But while the inquiry into the spectrum scam may be getting uncomfortable Kanimozhi, the CBI's investigation has good news for others like the former Chairperson of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Pradip Baijal.
Justice Shivraj Patil, who was appointed in December to study spectrum allocation, found that Mr Baijal violated the guidelines to help Tata Teleservices. He was in office when Arun Shourie was the Telecom Minister in the NDA regime.
Mr Shourie, who was questioned by the CBI last week, has allegedly presented a comprehensive account of Mr Baijal's services, which clear the former bureaucrat of the charges against him.