Central Figure in India Telecom Scandal Arrested

Andimuthu Raja, the former telecommunications minister whose handling of the sale of mobile telephone spectrum licenses may have cost the government as much as $39 billion in revenue, has been arrested.

The Central Bureau of Investigation argued in court that Raja conspired to benefit companies including Unitech Ltd. and the then Swan Telecom Ltd. by violating guidelines in the license sale. The bureau was given five days to quiz Raja, his personal secretary and the former top bureaucrat in the telecoms ministry. The bureau’s lawyer, Akhilesh, who uses only one name, said in the New Delhi courtroom that Raja had caused a loss of 220 billion rupees ($4.8 billion) to the exchequer. Raja’s lawyer, Ramesh Gupta, argued that the former minister should not be sent to CBI custody as he was cooperating in the investigation. The opposition, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party has stalled parliament, calling for a joint probe into the auction, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has refused. The stalemate disrupted the entire session that ended in December, making it the least productive in at least 25 years. The houses are scheduled to meet from Feb. 21 to pass the government’s budget.