Raja approved the 2G licence for his favourites: CBI to Court

CBI today told a Delhi court that a Former Telecom Minister A Raja had approved the grant of 2G spectrum licenses to the famous telecom firms like ADAG's Reliance Communication and others a day before inviting applications from it. On framing of charges before OP Saini, Special Public Prosecutor U U Lalit said Raja had granted the 2G licences to Reliance, HFCL and Shyam Tele Link on September 18,2007.  He also added that on September 19,2007, the press release for approval of dual technology was issued and Raja had granted the 2G licences to Reliance, HFCL and Shyam Tele Link on September,18,2007. He added that the application filed by Tata Teleservices applied for dual technology spectrum but their application was not treated properly and and it was kept pending. Lalit argued Reliance had floated Swan Telecom as it was not sure if its application for dual technology use of spectrum will be allowed. He later contended that the Reliance had violated the law which stipulated that no group can have substantial equity holdings in two companies within the same circle. He argued for framing charges against the 2G scam accused on five grounds those on changes in cut-off list, violation of first come first-serve policy, approval of dual technology and approval, besides that for cheating the government. Lalit also told the court that Raja had misled even the Prime Minister's office on issue of cut-off date for applying for 2G licence. He also added that he worte letters to the Prime Minister on November2,2007, misrepresenting facts with regard to the cut-off dates. Lalit pointed that various letters and file notings clearly showed that while the cut-off date was made public in January 2008, Raja had intended to prepone the last date for application in November, 2007 itself. Reported by, AR