NEW DELHI, Aug 23: The government offensive against the Rupert Murdoch-owned STAR TV network has intensified with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) entering the scene, even as top STAR officials reached New Delhi to work towards a truce.

The CBI's official spokesman confirmed tonight that the agency has initiated a two-pronged inquiry into allegations that Rathikant Basu, the STAR CEO in India, showed ``undue favours'' to private companies -- including STAR -- while he was Director General of Doordarshan.

An investigation by the Special Unit of the CBI working directly under Director R C Sharma is also trying to ascertain if in the process Basu drew any personal benefit or negotiated his appointment with STAR subsequent to his premature retirement.

Basu quit the government on September 30, 1996 as Secretary (Electronics) and joined STAR on October 1, 1996. The case is that Basu was in touch with STAR for the job while he was still in service.

The first of the two cases stems from a report of the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Murli Manohar Joshi. The committee concluded that Doordarshan had showed undue favours to a private software production company, NDTV, and in the process caused a loss of Rs 3.52 crore to the exchequer.

NDTV, in a representation to the PAC, has pointed out that the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry had supplied wrong information to the PAC and misled it, prompting it to arrive at such a conclusion. NDTV has said that it holds the PAC in the highest regard and wants justice to be done with ``accurate'' figures. It further says the programmes were telecast on DD even before Basu came on the scene and that the company received no special favours.

In fact, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has now pointed out that 12 other private programmes, including news and current affairs shows such as Aaj Tak, were given similar conditions. The PAC has sent NDTV's representation to the government saying it should be taken into account in the course of the investigation.

The second case is that DD, under Basu, allegedly showed undue favours to STAR, while negotiating the deal for the telecast of the 1996 cricket World Cup, resulting in a loss of Rs 35 crore. The allegation is firmly denied by Basu and also by his counsel Royan Karanjiawala. The government is apparently trying to build the case that there was a nexus between STAR and Basu long before he became its employee.

Sources close to Basu emphatically deny that there was any nexus in the interval between Basu's link-up with STAR and his stint with the government.

He joined STAR almost ten months after quitting his Doordarshan post in January 1996. He became Secretary in the Department of Electronics and thereafter proceeded on leave. He waited for weeks before his plea for premature retirement was accepted by the government.

The CBI spokesman declined to give further details saying it would be improper for the agency to comment on the merits of the cases at this stage.Informed sources say one case is being investigated by the CBI at the instance of Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramaniam, who wrote a Demi-Official letter to the CBI forwarding the PAC report. The Cabinet Secretary has specifically asked the CBI to find out if Basu negotiated his appointment with STAR while he was still in government service.

The letter was sent through the Ministry of Personnel to the CBI two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Director General of Doordarshan K S Sarma confirmed that his department had handed over to the CBI several files sought by the agency in connection with the investigations in the DD-STAR-World Tel controversy.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.