CBI grills ex-member of telecom commission

CBI on Monday grilled a former member of the telecom commission K Sridhar in connection with the alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation.

The probe agency has claimed that some department of telecommunication (DoT) officials were involved in the conspiracy to award licences to preferred companies by putting a cap on the applicants - a step that is contrary to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) recommendations.

“DoT officials have played an important role in awarding licences on a first-come-first-serve basis at 2001 rates without competitive bidding. Sridhar as the member (technical) in telecom commission took certain policy decisions arbitrarily without following rules and regulations.” a senior CBI official said.

CBI sources maintained that Raja had made some disclosures during his interrogation. “Some more people are likely to be arrested soon,” an official said.