2G Update Raja drags the Prime Minister Chidambaram Attorney General and Tata in the 2G mess

Former Telecom Minister and prime accused in 2G spectrum scam while defending himself against corruption charges dropped a bombshell on the UPA Government by dragging the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the 2G mess telling the court that the issue of dilution of equity by spectrum licencees was discussed with them..Former Telecom Minister and prime accused in 2G spectrum scam while defending himself against corruption charges dropped a bombshell on the UPA Government by dragging the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in the 2G mess telling the court that the issue of dilution of equity by spectrum licencees was discussed with them..Defending himself for the first time before the Special Judge O.P. Saini against the charges levelled by the Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court, Raja submitted that there was nothing wrong in his decision of not auctioning 2G spectrum and that he was merely following the policies pursued by his predecessors and the National Democratic Alliance government..Senior Advocate Sushil Kumar appearing for Raja said that when Home Minister Chidambaram was the Finance Minister he had told the Prime Minister that dilution of shares by the accused licencees to attract FDI did not amount to sale of licence, according to ET..Arguing that sale of equity was not sale of licence, Kumar said Raja cannot be accused of corruption in the controversial 2G spectrum allocation..“The then Finance Minister had said in front of the Prime Minister that dilution of shares does not amount to sale of 2G licence as per the corporate law,” asserted Kumar, who even said “Let the Prime Minister deny this”. Raja further said, “When sale of equity does not amount to sale of licence, there is no question of earning profit. How can (then) be corruption there in this regard?”.Kumar argued that if Raja is being prosecuted for following a certain policy, then all Telecom ministers since 1993 are liable to be prosecuted and should be in jail along with him as they too followed the same policy..While defending his policy as Telecom Minister, Raja submitted that it is because of his policy that mobile phone call rates came down and they became affordable to even a ‘rickshaw wala’..In the second day of the arguments, Raja again dragged Prime Minister in the 2G case, alleging that the Prime Minister too could be held guilty of “conspiracy” and dereliction of duty for not forming a GoM to examine the spectrum allocation issue..This allegation of Raja came just a few hours after he said that he did not seek to implicate the Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister in the 2G case and blamed the media for “putting words in my mouth”..Accusing the Prime Minister, he said, “PM had the power to constitute the GoM, but he never felt the need to do it. Just because the Prime Minister ignored it, no GoM (Group of Ministers) was constituted. By that standard, the Prime Minister was also in conspiracy so far as dereliction of duty is concerned. It was his PM’s judgment that GoM was not required”..Chidambaram explaining the position told NDTV that he did not clear the sale of equity by either company. He said his role was limited to asking Raja to clarify whether Unitech and Swan sold equity not by divestment (selling a part of their own stake) but by issuing fresh shares for their foreign investors. He was assured that was the case..The Congress specially the Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal strongly defended the Prime Minister and Chidambaram. However, Raja left no stone unturned to tarnish the image of the Prime Minister and the then Finance Minister..The BJP, which has all along been attacking the UPA Government for the 2G scam, has already demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister and Chidambaram..Raja while defending his case during the second day of arguments, took over the case from his lawyer and defended his own case before the court while giving another blow to the Government by accusing the then Solicitor-General G.E. Vahanvati of approving key policy changes related to awarding new mobile licences in 2008. Raja denied forging any Press release issued by the Department of Telecom in the 2G case, asserting that it was duly approved by the then Solicitor-General Vahanvati..Raja said in court that Attorney General GE Vahanvati had signed off on this decision. “I’m in jail for following his advice. Is this justice?” he asked. Attorney General repudiated that claim, and rubbished Raja’s charges against him, according to NDTV..Raja also challenged the CBI for not including Tata Teleservices which made Rs. 14,000 crore. He alleged that while Swan and Unitech are being targeted for selling equity, Ratan Tata did the same but has not been faulted by investigators. Kumar contended before the court, “Let the prosecution touch the man who has made Rs. 14,000 crore in this. They cannot touch him. This is my challenge (to CBI). Picking and choosing (the accused) is not permissible in law”..Also caught in Raja’s line of attack was the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) as Raja chose to question its ‘presumptive loss’ worth 1.76 lakh crore which the CAG included in its report. While terming the report as ‘worthless’ Raja said, “its computation is not even relied upon by the CBI”..Raja, who was arrested on February 2 for his alleged role in the 2G scam, completed his arguments yesterday shaking the UPA Government with his disclosures and allegations..CBI Special Public Prosecutor U.U. Lalit had begun his arguments on framing of charges against Raja and 16 others, including three telecom firms, from July 21..ET reports, while concluding his arguments, Lalit told the court that going purely by the note on revision of licence fee by Indian Revenue Service officer Manju Madhavan or the Prime Minister’s letter, a loss of Rs 30,000 crore has been caused to the public exchequer. Lalit said besides Raja, others involved in the scam that caused huge loss to the exchequer, included former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, Raja’s erstwhile aide R. K. Chandolia and corporate honchos Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka and Sanjay Chandra..CBI also alleged that during grant of dual-technology licences to existing service providers, Reliance was unduly favoured over Tata in order to keep some spectrum safe for the Swan Telecom..While pressing on all the charges that the CBI has levelled against various accused in the charge sheet, Lalit argued that charges under Sections 192 (for fabricating false evidence) and 193 (the punishment for false evidence) under Indian Penal Code too is also made out against them..Lalit completed his arguments on July 23..All the 14 accused including DMK MP Kanimozhi are presently lodged in Tihar Jail..Background leading to unfolding of 2G scam and CBI Investigations.The 2G spectrum scam in India involved the issue of 122 licences by the ruling Congress-led UPA alliance of the 2G spectrum to 85 companies including many new telecom companies with little or no experience in the telecom sector at a price set in the year 2001..The scam involved allegations regarding the under pricing of the 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications which resulted in a heavy loss to the exchequer, and the illegal manipulation of the spectrum allocation process to favour select companies..The issue came to light after the auction of airwaves for 3G services which amounted to 677,190 crore ($151.01 billion) to the exchequer. A report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on the money collected from 3G licenses estimated that the loss to the exchequer due to under pricing of the 2G spectrum was 176,379 crore ($39.33 billion). The scam came to public notice when the Supreme Court of India took Subramaniam Swamy’s complaints on record [With Case type: Writ Petition (Civil), Case No:10, Year:2011]..With the passing of the below reproduced order, the Supreme Court opened the whole new brisk investigative procedure by the CBI, leading to the arrests and jailing of some of the top-notch Cabinet Ministers and corporate honchos..The Supreme Court in the mentioned writ petition issued the following directions:.1. The CBI shall conduct thorough investigation into various issues highlighted in the report of the Central Vigilance Commission, which was forwarded to the Director, CBI vide letter dated 12.10.2009 and the report of the CAG, who have prima facie found serious irregularities in the grant of licenses to 122 applicants, majority of whom are said to be ineligible, the blatant violation of the terms and conditions of licenses and huge loss to the public exchequer running into several thousand crores. The CBI should also probe how licenses were granted to large number of ineligible applicants and who was responsible for the same and why the TRAI and the DoT did not take action against those licensees who sold their stakes/equities for many thousand crore and also against those who failed to fulfil rollout obligations and comply with other conditions of license..2. The CBI shall conduct the investigation without being influenced by any functionary, agency or instrumentality of the State and irrespective of the position, rank or status of the person to be investigated/probed..3. The CBI shall, if it has already not registered first information report in the context of the alleged irregularities committed in the grant of licenses from 2001 to 2006-2007, now 38 register a case and conduct thorough investigation with particular emphasis on the loss caused to the public exchequer and corresponding gain to the licensees/service providers and also on the issue of allowing use of dual/alternate technology by some service providers even before the decision was made..4. The CBI shall also make investigation into the allegation of grant of huge loans by the public sector and other banks to some of the companies which have succeeded in obtaining licenses in 2008 and find out whether the officers of the DoT were signatories to the loan agreement executed by the private companies and if so, why and with whose permission they did so..5. The Directorate of Enforcement / concerned agencies of the Income Tax Department shall continue their investigation without any hindrance or interference by any one..6. Both the agencies, i.e., the CBI and the Directorate of Enforcement shall share information with each other and ensure that the investigation is not hampered in any manner whatsoever..7. The Director General, Income Tax (Investigation) shall, after completion of analysis of the transcripts of the recording made pursuant to the approval accorded by the Home Secretary, Government of India, hand over the same to CBI to facilitate further investigation into the FIR.