NEW DELHI: An Indian court granted police the right to detain arrested ex-telecom minister A. Raja for five days on Thursday as investigators probe one of the country's biggest ever corruption cases.
A judge at a New Delhi special court agreed to the request from the Central Bureau of Investigation, which said Raja was being "evasive" during questioning about the tainted sale of second-generation (2G) mobile phone licences in 2008.
The former minister is suspected of rigging the rules to favour certain companies, causing a total loss to the national treasury of up to 40 billion dollars according to the national auditor.
A lawyer acting for the CBI referred to deals with two companies in particular -- Swan and Unitech -- adding that the preliminary police estimate of the losses was 220 billion rupees (4.8 billion dollars).
"Undue favour was given in the allocation of licences and spectrum," CBI lawyer Akhilesh, who uses one name, told the court. "Certain companies were favoured."
Unitech Wireless is a unit of construction group Unitech and is now partially owned by Norway's Telenor Group, which bought a stake in 2009. Swan had links to Indian tycoon Anil Ambani and is now partly owned by UAE-based Etisalat.
Raja, who maintains his innocence, was formally arrested on Wednesday along with two other senior figures from the telecom ministry who were also remanded in custody for five days on Thursday.
The low-caste politician from a regional party in south India was forced out of government in November as public outrage mounted over the sale at knock-down prices of licences for the world's fastest-growing mobile market.
The valuable parts of spectrum were sold on a first-come, first-served basis instead of via an auction and the ministry is suspected of changing the rules deliberately to favour certain companies, many of which were ineligible to bid.
It is rare for a senior political figure to be arrested and the move reflects the pressure on the government to act in a case that has been front-page news for months.
The so-called 2G scandal has engulfed India's Congress Party-led coalition government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, causing some of the strongest political headwinds since they came to power six years ago.
The Supreme Court has consistently pressured the government, asking why Singh failed to act against Raja earlier and querying why police had taken until December to question the minister.
In six decades, only one senior Indian politician at the national level, Rao Shiv Bahadur Singh, has been convicted of graft and served a jail term -- for taking a bribe back in 1949.
In an editorial on Thursday, The Hindu newspaper said the arrest of Raja was "a significant milestone" but many questions remained unanswered, including why it had taken three years for the police to act.
"The arrest raises the question what and who prevented India's premier criminal investigation agency from doing what it is required to do under the law of the land," it said.
It said the prime minister must also explain why he went along with the first-come, first-served basis of the licence sales that allegedly enabled Raja to manipulate the spectrum winners.
"In fact, the record shows that the prime minister first raised doubts about this course but went along with the decision-making," The Hindu said.
The 2G scandal and widespread graft allegations during the vastly over-budget Delhi Commonwealth Games in October have buffeted the government as public impatience with official corruption wears increasingly thin.
In a campaign for a cross-party investigation into the sale, the main opposition parties stalled parliament for the entire winter session, meaning almost no new legislation was passed.
In January, 14 prominent Indians, including business leaders, judges and economists, warned in an open letter to the government that rampant corruption was damaging the country's social fabric.
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