A Raja has a habit of making false statements, says CBI

The CBI charged former Telecom Minister A Raja on Wednesday with misleading then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of allocation of 2G spectrum licences and having a "habit" of making false statements.

Advancing final arguments in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case before the special court, special public prosecutor Anand Grover said that Raja had "deliberately" told incorrect facts to the then Prime Minister on policy issues and had deviated from prescribed procedures.

"The Prime Minister, in his letter to Raja, had asked him to ensure fairness and transparency (in allocation of licence) and also to inform him before taking any decision. Raja wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and told him about the process. What he told the PM was contrary to the records...Raja made incorrect statements in the letter written to the PM. This was deliberate on Raja's part as he knew very well that what he is saying to the PM was incorrect," Grover told Special Judge O P Saini. 

He further claimed that "Raja is in a habit of making false statements, even to the Prime Minister" and "with a stroke on pen" had changed the cut-off date for receiving applications from firms seeking 2G licences, in which out of 575 applicant companies, 408 applications were kept out of the race.

"Cut-off date for receiving applications was changed from October 10, 2007 to October 1, 2007 and then to October 1, 2007. Upto September 24, 2007, 167 applications were received in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and upto October 1, 2007, a total of 575 applications were received. So, virtually 408 applications were struck off by the stroke of a pen by Raja," Grover claimed, adding that the decision to change the cut-off date was taken by Raja to favour some firms.

The arguments remained inconclusive and would continue tomorrow. Raja, who has denied all charges during his arguments, and 16 others, including DMK MP Kanimozhi, are facing trial in the case.

During the arguments, Grover said then Union Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj had recommended that the issue of allocation of spectrum should be referred to a Group of Ministers but Raja had rejected it, saying it was "out of context".

"This was an important issue that the then Law Minister had recommended that the issue be referred to the group of ministers," he said.

"This is a case where records suggest that there was a conspiracy to favour some people," he said.

In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012. Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance ADAG -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair -- are facing trial in the case.

Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in the case. Besides these, 14 accused persons, three telecom firms -- Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd -- are also accused in the case.

The court had on October 22, 2011, framed charges against them under IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe. The offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.