2G case: Raja main conspirator, favoured firms, says CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday told a special court that former Telecom Minister A Raja was the “main conspirator” of the 2G spectrum scam and had favoured accused telecom firms in the allocation of <g data-gr-id="13">radiowaves</g> licences.

Advancing final arguments in the case, special public prosecutor Anand Grover said Raja, from the very <g data-gr-id="20">begining</g>, had “deliberately” favoured the accused firms and everything was strategically planned to grant them the spectrum licences. “He was the main conspirator. To favour the accused companies, first he changed the cut-off date for receiving applications from October 10, 2007 to October 1, 2007 for firms seeking 2G licences, in which out of 575 applicant companies, 408 applications were kept out of the race,” Grover told Special CBI Judge OP Saini.

He alleged that Raja also rejected then union Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj’s suggestion that the issue of spectrum allocation <g data-gr-id="18">be</g> referred to Group of Ministers which was apparently done to get rid of any scrutiny by anyone else.

“Further, to assuage the then Prime Minister’s concerns over the issue, he (Raja) wrote a letter to him that he is prescribing with existing norms of first-come, <g data-gr-id="22">first-serve</g> policy and that he has also taken the concurrence of then solicitor general and Minister of External Affairs in this regard, which was not the case,” Grover claimed. He said Raja’s decision to decide the eligibility for grant of <g data-gr-id="23">spectrum</g> on the basis of compliance conditions of Letters of Intent (LoIs) was unilateral and did not come from the department.

The 2G <g data-gr-id="33">radiowave</g> allocation scam is set to hog the limelight again as Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has decided to submit its report on the controversial issue to Parliament based on the “in depth” discussions held by the panel then headed by Murli Manohar Joshi. The PAC also plans to table reports on the Commonwealth Games scam and 'KG Basin – <g data-gr-id="34">Hydrocarbaon</g> Production Sharing Contracts'.