2G: Chennai I-T team to grill Raja on Wednesday

An Income Tax department team will fly down from Chennai on Wednesday to question former telecom minister A Raja in Tihar jail, for his alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

The two-member team, led by an additional commissioner rank officer, will quiz Raja in the afternoon at the jail complex where he is presently lodged in judicial custody. "Former telecom minister A Raja will be questioned about certain leads in the probe" a senior I-T official said without elaborating.

Special Central Bureau of Investigation Judge O P Saini had allowed the I-T department's application seeking permission to question Raja and six others on July 21. The team, which is expected to question Raja for about two-three hours, will confront Raja with certain financial documents that the I-T has obtained during the course of its probe.

Sources in the department however said that the questioning of Raja will essentially be restricted to the financial details about his family and those transactions for which he was responsible in his personal capacity.

The I-T department had earlier moved three separate applications seeking interrogation of Raja in connection with his family income.

The other applications of the I-T pertained to the request for questioning Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka and three Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group top officials -- Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara. Balwa and others will be quizzed by the income tax team from Mumbai regarding his connection with Etisalat DB, later.