Govt appoints retired SC judge to probe

The Indian government has asked a retired Supreme Court judge to look into the telecom policies followed by different governments since 2001.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said the inquiry by retired judge Shivraj Patil will be completed within four weeks. It will examine instances where procedure was not followed, as well as any lack of transparency.
Sibal said that the Supreme Court is already examining criminal culpability for the humongous 2G scam - estimated to be worth Rs. 1.76 lakh crore by the government's auditor.
Meanwhile, sources in the CBI say that during the raids at A Raja's home, they have seized three diaries, written in English, crammed with numbers that seem to indicate details of business transactions.
Till last month, when he was forced to resign, Raja was the Telecom Minister. Before that, he was the Environment Minister in UPA1, and these diaries are reportedly from that period.
Raja's homes in Delhi and his family's homes in Tamil Nadu were raided yesterday, along with the houses of four of his close aides and a man reported to be his business partner.
The raids came nearly a year after the CBI filed a police case against unknown officials in the Telecom Department for what's being described as India's largest-ever scam and centres on the allocation of valuable 2G spectrum in 2008 when Raja was Telecom Minister.
Many said that the raids were pretence by the government to suggest that the CBI investigation will indeed uncover those responsible for the great 2G robbery.
Critics point out that Raja and those who worked closely with him and are now being questioned had plenty of time to get rid of any documentary evidence of their alleged misdeeds.
However, the CBI said yesterday after the raids that it had found "incriminating documents" but did not specify who these were likely to indict.