A Delhi court on Thursday remanded former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja, accused in one of the country's biggest corruption cases, into the custody of investigators, according to dpa. Raja was arrested by members of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday in connection with a multibillion-dollar scandal involving the sale of 2G mobile phone licences in 2008. The court remanded Raja and two former telecommunications officials into the bureau's custody for five days, his lawyer SS Gandhi told reporters. "The CBI moved the remand application on the grounds that he [Raja] had been evasive during questioning, saying it needed more time for custodial interrogation," Gandhi said. Raja resigned in November after a government auditor's report accused his ministry of selling 2G mobile phone licences at giveway prices without following proper bidding procedures. The sales led to a potential loss of up to 39 billion dollars to the government purse, according to a Comptroller and Auditor General's report. Raja, who belongs to the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK), an ally of the ruling Indian National Congress party, denied any wrongdoing, saying he had given licences on a first-come, first-served policy followed by his predecessors. The DMK accused opposition parties of targeting Raja to "malign" the party and said it supported him. "His arrest does not mean that he is guilty," DMK spokesman TKS Elangovan told reporters in the southern city of Chennai. He rejected reports of Raja's resignation from the party, saying the politician retained his position of propaganda secretary for the party. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government faces increasing pressure over a series of scandals involving ministers and officials over recent months, including the organization of the Commonwealth Games in October. The scandal over the licence allocation deadlocked Parliament's winter session in December with opposition lawmakers demanding an independent cross-party investigation.
