Police raided the homes and offices of the former minister this week, along with those of senior aides, as part of its probe into the 2008 sale of mobile phone licences, which resulted in massive losses for the government.
“I will fully co-operate with the (Central Bureau of Investigation) agency. Whatever the procedure is, I have to comply with it,” Raja said in the southern city of Chennai.
“I will prove my innocence.”
“No one is above the law,” Raja said after meeting Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Karunanidhi, who had been staunchly supporting the beleaguered former minister, said on Wednesday that the party would take action against Raja if he is found guilty.
A CBI spokesman declined to say when the politician, who has denied all wrongdoing, might be questioned, but another official said it would be soon.
Raja was forced to quit last month following accusations by the Comptroller and Auditor General that his ministry’s handling of the sale of the mobile licences at knock-down prices cost the nation up to $40bn in lost revenue.
The scandal has cast a cloud over India’s “telecom revolution” that has made the country the world’s fastest-growing mobile market with 700mn users.
It has also raised doubts about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s political judgment in not acting faster against Raja after concerns about the sale first surfaced.
Raja’s comments came after the CBI questioned officials who had been raided, gathering information they said would form the basis for interrogating the politician.
The Congress-led government is under fierce attack from opposition parties for the rock-bottom prices at which the second-generation (2G) licences and radio bandwidth were awarded, in what analysts called the “deal of a lifetime.”
Parliament has been paralysed by opposition demands for a joint parliamentary committee probe with power to question ministers, and the winter session, which ends on Monday, has been lost, dashing government hopes of passing key land reform and other bills.
The coalition government has resisted the call for a JPC probe, saying other investigations are sufficient.
Raja’s pledge to co-operate coincided with a recommendation by India’s telecom watchdog to cancel 38 wireless licences.
The firms affected by the recommendation include the Indian joint ventures of Norway’s telecommunications giant Telenor and Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, junior communications minister Sachin Pilot said in a statement.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India also suggested “legal examination” of 31 licences given to Aircel, Allianz Infratech (P) Ltd, Etisalat DB, Loop Telecom Ltd, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd and Videocon Telecommunications Ltd.
The Congress-led government plans to “take necessary action after verification of data and after taking legal notice,” Pilot said in the statement posted on a government website.
The regulator’s recommendations are not binding on India’s telecommunications ministry, which holds the power to cancel the licences.
Telenor has already denied that that there were any “irregularities” in the way its subsidiary Indian Uninor won mobile licences. There was no immediate public comment from other companies.
The regulator’s “stance is that this is a scarce national resource and this is the harshest way of punishing these operators,” said Naveen Kulkarni, an analyst at MF Global Ltd in Mumbai.
The licence applications of many firms should have been turned down because they did not satisfy “the basic eligibility conditions” set by the department of telecommunications, the CAG report said last month.
The firms “suppressed facts, disclosed incomplete information and submitted fictitious documents” for getting licences, the auditor said.
A total of 157 licences were awarded in the controversial 2008 sale, many to ineligible applicants who “suppressed facts, disclosed incomplete information and submitted fictitious documents,” according to the national auditor.
Along with the police probe, the telecom ministry under its new minister Kapil Sibal has launched its own inquiry headed by a former Supreme Court judge into how licences were allotted from 2001 to 2009.
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