A Raja accused in scam, CBI raids his office

New Delhi: Within months of Telecom and IT Minister A Raja's swearing in, corruption charges have been leveled at him again. The noose appears to be tightening around the Dalit face of the DMK.

The trail of the controversial auction of 2G spectrum has taken the CBI to his doorstep, but Raja revoked the names of top Cabinet ministers in his defence.

"Offloading the Unitech has been approved by the Cabinet in and around 4000 crore. It was brought around by the Finance Ministry the the dilution of shares is in accordance with the FDI norms," he said.

He says the empowered Group of Ministers - headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee - saw no reason to change the license fee for 3G spectrum allocation.

"Even till last months, the GoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee, did not want to alter the license fee," he added.

The CBI is believed to have recovered incriminating documents that may put Raja in a fix and this may give the Congress the lever it needs to remove Raja from office. He has faced criticism earlier for projects cleared when he was environment minister.

Meanwhile, the Opposition has already stepped up its attack on Raja and the DMK.

BJP Spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "We would expect the Prime Minister and other ministers to ensure that no pressure should be brought upon the CBI to hush up the matter."

CPM leader, Sitaram Yechury added, "It is now up to the Prime Minister and the Union Cabinet to take whatever measures they think are necessary. But what we demand is accountability."

The victory in three states on Thursday has given a new high to the Congress party. Clearly the DMK knows that in UPA II, it needs the Congress more than the Congress needs it. The question everyone is asking now is - will Raja be asked to step down?

(With inputs from DP Satish and Marya Shakil in New Delhi)

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