2G scam: CBI may question Arun Shourie, Jaswant Singh

The Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) report listing all the steps taken by the agency to unearth the conspiracy behind the disputed Rs1.76 lakh crore 2G spectrum scam in 2008 has thrown up some surprising revelations.

The agency in its report filed on Thursday stated that communication minister during the UPA-I rule Dayanidhi Maran wasn't found to have coerced in finalising the sale of Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis group. But the agency said others such as late Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie and former finance minister Jaswant Singh were suspected to have defied the policy. Thus, it could question them.

In another development, a bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly said it would consider Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy's application seeking its nod to name home minister P Chidambaram as an accused in a criminal prosecution. The prosecution was launched by Swamy in a private capacity before a Delhi court.

He said there was evidence suggesting that Chidambaram had several meetings with former telecom minister A Raja, who is jail, on the issue of grant of 2G spectrum in 2008 at 2001 prices.
CBI counsel KK Venugopal said the agency has not received any notice on Swamy's plea. In its order that led Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and a few executives of telecom companies to Tihar jail, the SC had asked the CBI to examine the telecom policy enunciated by the NDA government in 2001.   

During the long proceedings in the over crowded court room, Venugopal however admitted that the company which was taking over Aircel was in contact with Maran, who had to resign from the Union cabinet as a consequence of the agency’s affidavit earlier.
Venugopal said, “Jaswant Singh would be examined in due course as he was heading the Group of Ministers(GoM) on the issue of limited mobility and unified licensing during the relevant period’’.

He said the probe in this regard would be completed by the end of September. When Venugopal was reading the report, the judges asked him “Are you going to examine these people (Shourie, Maran and others)? What other steps have been taken for the investigation?

The counsel didn’t rule out the possibility of their being questioned by the agency. He said the agency is still probing allegations of delay in grant of license to Aircel. He said that Loop Telecom, which is a front company for Essar is a major suspect in the scam.

CBI claims to have evidence that Loop Telecom served as a front for Essar. It believes that by setting up Loop as its “alter ego,” Essar was able to circumvent the rule that forbids a telecom operator from owning more than 10% stake in another phone company that provides services in the same area.

The agency said that the Essar group was holding 100% stake in Loop through holding companies. The agency said it has studied several bank accounts that point to this; very cheap loans were also allegedly given by Essar to Loop. 
 The agency is believed to have said that during Mahajan’s tenure as telecom minister (2001-2003) members of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had been meeting the then telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh in connection with the cellular mobile service issue.

In its report, the CBI also mentioned that licences granted during the tenure of former telecom ministers Arun Shourie and Pramod Mahajan should be investigated and the then finance minister Jaswant Singh should be questioned.

Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, other accused in the case include Unitech Wireless managing director Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom’s director Vinod Goenka, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura, DMK-run Kalaignar TV’s MD Sharad Kumar, Bollywood filmmaker Karim Morani and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group’s executives Hari Nair, Gautam Doshi and Surendra Pipara.