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Raja, Behura, Chandolia to CBI custody for five days

Delhi court has remanded former telecom minister A Raja, former Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura and the former minister's Personal Secretary R K Chandolia to CBI custody for five days in the 2G spectrum allocation scam on Thursday.

Earlier, Special CBI Judge O P Saini grants Raja's counsel 10-minute private conversation with the former minister.Raja was arrested on Wednesday by CBI along Behura and Chandolia. CBI is scheduled to file its final investigation report in the Supreme Court by 10th February.The arrest of 47th year old Raja comes almost two months after his resignation as telecom minister.

DMK backs Raja throwing its weight behind A Raja, the DMK on Thursday said his arrest does not prove his guilt in the 2G spectrum scam and accused opposition parties of targeting him to "malign" the party.The DMK's decision to stand by Raja came a day after he was arrested by the CBI with the party passing a resolution at its top decision making body's meeting, presided over by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi.

Accusing the opposition of blowing the 2G spectrum scam out of proportion, the DMK said their only evidence against Raja was the CAG report tabled in Parliament, which they were using to "malign" the party.The CAG had given a similar report during the NDA regime also on the issue, but the opposition, which had successfully blocked functioning of Parliament during its last session, has again threatened to do so in the coming Budget Session, demanding a JPC probe into the issue, it said.

But when the earlier CAG report was tabled, there was no "such noise" from the then opposition, the resolution said. The opposition did not want the Public Accounts Committee, which normally goes into such reports, the resolution said, pointing out that the PAC was headed by a BJP member (Murli Manohar Joshi).

There was no justification for the opposition to continue the protest as the probe by the CBI, which is under the Supreme Court's monitoring, has intensified investigation into the 2G scam and arrested Raja, the resolution said.
It also recalled the earlier statement of Karunanidhi that he would not hesitate to take action against Raja if he was really proved guilty, adding the party was "an open book."