Chennai, Oct 29(IANS) AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa Thursday said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should hold “deeper” probe into the alleged spectrum scam rather than merely raiding a few offices of the telecom department.
“CBI has to investigate deeper (communications minister A.) Raja’s role in the spectrum allocation scam,” Jayalalithaa, also leader of opposition in the Tamil Nadu assembly, said.

“It has to find who are the beneficiaries of the scam, and how letter-pad companies like Swan Telecom sold stakes to foreign titans like Etisalat and ETA Ascon,” she added.

Opposition parties have alleged large-scale irregularities in the allocation of 2G spectrum to private players last year and have demanded resignation of Communication Minister A. Raja.

Jayalalithaa said the CBI should find Swan Telecom’s “links with Green House Promoters, a real estate firm launched in 2004 by people close to Raja on a modest share capital of Rs.100,000″.

Now the real estate company is worth several thousand crore, she claimed.

The AIADMK leader also demanded investigation into the links between ETA Group and Genex Exim Ventures, a company launched in 2008-end with a share capital of Rs.100,000. Genex Exim later acquired stakes worth Rs.380 crore in Swan Telecom.

The investigation agency should also unravel the links between Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the Dubai-based ETA group, which is executing big government construction projects in the state, Jayalalithaa added.

She said ETA group company Star Health Insurance has bagged the health insurance scheme of the government and the group’s airline arm Star Airlines is now being controlled by members of Karunanidhi’s family.

According to Jayalalithaa, the connection between Karunanidhi and the ETA group dates back to 1960s when major construction contracts were awarded to group company East Coast Constructions.

“It will also come out that these contracts were awarded to the company as a quid-pro-quo for having distributed Karunanidhi’s flop film ‘Pillayo Pillai’, through which he tried to launch his son Mu Ka Muthu as a rival to MGR (M.G. Ramachandran),” she said.

She added that the investigation would be effective only if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shows the “will and the courage” to sack Raja from his Cabinet.