The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday registered a case naming many officials of BSNL and private firms in BSNL’s WiMAX technology franchise deal. This followed raids in nine places including Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Chennai and Kolkata. 

Although no FIR was filed against the former telecom minister A Raja, the irregularities in BSNL's WiMax deal is yet another contract in which he  was accused of manipulating provisions of the tender to favour a firm. However, Raja's name doesn't figure in the CBI FIR, according to a report published in Times of India. 

A CBI spokesperson told TOI that the agency carried out searches in nine places in Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Chennai and Kolkata. "During searches, incriminating documents have been recovered," the spokesperson said. 

"It is alleged that the public servants had entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves and in furtherance of the said conspiracy the accused public servants abused their official position and facilitated the award of franchisee for three LSAs to a private limited company," the CBI said.

The agency accused the officials of "dishonestly and intentionally withholding the sale of tender documents in a fraudulent manner, and, allegedly diluting the eligibility conditions to accommodate" to favour Starnet Communications, which won the contract. The CBI said BSNL suffered an "estimated wrongful loss of approximately Rs 535.50 crore" because of the deal.