India's government was plunged into controversy yesterday with the publication of an auditor's report into what is suspected to be India's biggest case of state corruption.
The report by the Indian comptroller and auditor general accuses former telecoms minister Andimuthu Raja of causing a loss of about £22bn to the exchequer by failing to follow proper procedure in the award of licences to run mobile phone networks in India in 2008. The sum is unparalleled even in a country that has seen many such scandals
The report condemned the 47-year-old politician from the southern Tamil Nadu state for acting in an "arbitrary, unfair and inequitable manner" and "flouting every canon of financial propriety, rules and procedures". The 2G spectrum licences were sold at a fraction of their real value, the watchdog found, and of the 115 awarded, 85 were illegal. It also alleged widespread fraud. Raja, who was forced to resign on Sunday, has consistently denied all wrongdoing. {Read on}
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