NEW DELHI, April 2 (UPI) -- India Saturday indicted a former telecommunications minister, along with other officials and executives, over a sale of radio bandwidth.
The Central Bureau of Investigation charged former Minister Andimuthu Raja with conspiracy, cheating, forgery, criminal misconduct and abusing official power in the allegedly rigged 2008 deal, The Wall Street Journal reported.
R.K. Chandolia, Raja's former personal secretary, and former Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura face similar counts.
The founders of Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd., now known as Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd., were charged with cheating and forgery, and three executives of companies in the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group were accused of abetting crime by benefiting from the questionable bandwidth allocation.
"The investigation relating to the issuance of new unified access services licenses and subsequent allocation of 2G Spectrum during 2008-2009 has established commission of offences" by Raja and others, the CBI said.
Raja and Swan founder Shahid Balwa said they will contest the charges. Chandolia, Behura and Reliance ADAG executives could not immediately be reached for comment.
