Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) A. Raja, the former communications minister arrested Feb 2 for suspected irregularities in the allotment of telecom spectrum to companies, continues to spend his nights in an office complex that houses the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country’s top investigating agency. When asked about the whereabouts of the former cabinet minister, who had a spacious ministerial bungalow in the heart of Lutyen’s Delhi and large houses in Tamil Nadu, a CBI spokesman simply said: “He is being detained on the first floor of our office building in block four of the Central Government Offices (CGO) complex.”

When asked for more details on the kind of living accommodation the former minister was being provided for the night when he was not being questioned, the spokesman angrily retorted: “Are these the kind of questions that you should be asking a national investigative agency? First, you ask about the room where he is being kept, then you will ask about which chair he is sitting on?”

On the first day, when Raja was arrested after questioning Feb 2, reporters saw a man coming with his food in an elaborate tiffin box, a picture that was captured by the hundreds of news-hungry cameraperons there.

The CBI would not say whether Raja and his former aides, including former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and his private secretary R.K. Chandolia, who too were detained in the complex, get food from outside or the CBI had facilities in its complex for high-profile detainees. They would also not say whether the three had separate rooms to themselves.

The special CBI court Tuesday extended Raja’s custody by another two days, while the other two have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days.