For A Raja, a list of questions from CBI - 1,800 to be exact

New Delhi: Former telecom minister A Raja will move from one test - the election he is contesting in the Nilgiri Hills - to another. Tamil Nadu votes on Thursday; starting May 5, Mr Raja has to be present in a Delhi court to answer some questions by the CBI - 1,800, if you're counting.

Mr Raja, 50, is being investigated on charges of malversation - as Telecom Minister in 2008, he allegedly gifted out-of-turn license for mobile networks, bundled with free airwaves, to companies who paid him kickbacks.

Mr Raja, a senior leader of the Tamil Nadu party, the DMK, was arrested in February 2011 and released on bail 15 months later. Both his party and he have denied any wrongdoing.

NDTV has accessed the 800-page questionnaire prepped for Mr Raja by the CBI, which is investigating the alleged scam, priced at Rs 1.76 lakh crore by the national auditor. In court, he will be asked to explain what he knew of Swan Telecom, described by the CBI as a front company for Anil Ambani's Reliance ADAG. Prosecutors say that Reliance used Swan to acquire more licenses than was legally permissible.

Swan, promoted by Shahid Balwa, allegedly routed a nearly Rs 200-crore kickback to Mr Raja through a Chennai television channel co-owned by M Kanimozhi, the daughter of DMK president M Karunanidhi. Like Mr Raja, she has been granted bail by the Supreme Court.

Mr Raja has argued that the process he chose to allocate licenses was sanctioned by the Prime Minister. Investigators say that at the last minute, Mr Raja recalibrated the rules to ensure that the first companies to submit applications and the fee of Rs 1,600 crore would be granted licenses. Companies that he favoured had allegedly been informed of the change and were able to move to the head of the queue.

Mr Raja will be asked by the CBI to explain how a letter written by him to the Prime Minister in November 2007, defending the policy he was following for choosing recipients of licenses, was dictated at his home between 9 and 11 pm, rather than from his office during work hours. He had been questioned by the PM about media reports that suggested irregularities in the screening process.

He will also be interrogated about whether he had "a shouting match" with then Telecom Secretary DS Mathur, who reportedly opposed the minister's decision to change the date for the filing of applications.

The extensive questioning of Mr Raja is likely to be equally embarrassing for the Congress, which is asking for a third successive term in power with the odds stacked heavily against it. The telecom scandal became the first of a conglomerate of scams that have dented the party, and turned graft into a major issue for voters.