2G scam: No Raja in CBI report?

New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has again avoided naming former Telecom minister A Raja in its status report on 2G spectrum allocation scam, said reports on Monday.

Sources told CNN-IBN news channel that the status report submitted in the Supreme Court on Monday has no mention of Raja and his alleged role in the scandal.

In its report, the CBI claimed to have examined 8,000 records of 82,000 pages volume, interrogated 43 witnesses, and raided 17 companies and Department of Telecom office.

This is not the first time CBI remained silent on Raja in the scam.

On Nov 25, the Supreme Court pulled up the CBI for not including names individuals and private companies in its First Information Report (FIR) and also not interrogating Raja on the 2G scam.

According to reports, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), in a letter, had mentioned certain individuals and private companies to be involved in the 2G scam. But the FIR registered by the CBI omitted those names and also deferred questioning on Raja.

The CBI reportedly defended itself by saying that the ?parties? were not named and questioned individually, as they were not the ?only ones? linked to the scandal.

On Nov 22, the CBI had told the Supreme Court that it expects to complete its 2G scam probe by March next year.

In an affidavit filed to the apex court, the CBI said it will wrap up its investigations in two months and file the chargesheet in another month.

The CBI is probing the alleged 2G spectrum scam where former Telecom minister A Raja was held personally responsible by the government’s auditor of costing a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the nation through “illogical” sale of telecom spectrum in 2008.

?We are investigating the offences and for each charge there has to be evidence and documents. The CAG report is about financial impropriety and not a criminal act,? KK Venugopal, the CBI counsel, had told a bench of justice G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly.

The CBI will take two months to finish the investigation as it was examining transcripts relating to 5,000 calls (out of which 3,800 have been analysed), 6,000 files and 80,000 pages of documents.