Raja misled Manmohan Singh on 2G policy matters: CBI to court

Former Telecom Minister A Raja had ‘misled’ then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding policy of first-come-first-served (FCFS) which was to be followed for allocation of 2G spectrum, CBI told a special court on Monday.

Advancing final arguments in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, in which Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 15 others are facing trial, special public prosecutor Anand Grover said Raja had subverted the FCFS policy so that he can “pick and choose” the firms for allocation of the radio waves.

“Raja had misled the then Prime Minister on FCFS. In his November 2, 2007 letter, Raja said to the PM that there was no deviation in the policy. In his another letter, Raja misled the then PM on FCFS policy,” Grover told Special CBI Judge O P Saini. “Raja falsely stated to then PM that there was concurrence of the then Solicitor General and the then Foreign Minister (on policy matter). This was a completely false statement by Raja,” he said.

Grover told the court that clause 8 of the Unified Access Services Licence (UASL) guidelines was flouted by Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL) as it was controlled by Reliance ADAG.

“Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd was a Reliance ADAG company,” he said. Regarding the alleged conspiracy, CBI said Unitech Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, STPL promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka were in touch with Raja and his erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia when Raja was the Minister of Environment and Forest. “The prosecution has established an important facet of criminal conspiracy that they were in constant touch with each other,” Grover said during the arguments which would continue on Tuesday.

Besides Raja, Kanimozhi, Chandolia, Chandra, Balwa and Goenka, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura and three top executives of Reliance ADAG –Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair – are facing trial in the case.