Over 43 witnesses have been examined and houses of seven of family members have been raided, “what did you find?’ that is the question I asked and will continue to ask, burst out the former Telecom Minister, Mr A Raja.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP, who is undergoing trial on charges of irregularities in allocation of 2G licenses to telecom companies, was responding to a question from a reporter on how he felt about being named in what is believed to be one of the largest corruption cases.

Mr Raja who is out on bail after he was arrested more than a year back, had just arrived at the DMK party headquarters where he met the leader and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Mr M. Karunanidhi.

Till his outburst, Mr Raja stood calmly behind the DMK leader and responded to questions relating to the case and his political career with a non committal – the case is on and I cannot comment and on his political career, that it was in the hands of his mentor and DMK chief Mr Karunanidhi.

But to the question on the scale of corruption, he responded vehemently.

The Supreme Court and the Trial Court have not accepted the claims of the scale of loss to the exchequer – whether Rs 1.76 lakh crore as mentioned in the initial stages or Rs 35,000 crore, subsequently, he pointed out.

The charges only relate to possible abuse of power, Mr Raja said. But despite extensive investigation what have the authorities to show, he asked.

Mr Karunanidhi said his feelings after meeting Mr Raja after over a year was that of meeting a brother. That feeling was mutual he said.

It would not be right to comment more on the court proceedings. The case itself has been extensively discussed, he asserted.

Mr Raja, standing behind Mr Karunanidhi, during the course of the press conference, declined to comment on the court proceedings.

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