Jailed former telecom minister surprised one and all on Monday when he went on the offensive and dragged the PM and the home minister into the 2G spectrum scam.
A Raja, former telecom minister and an accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, on Monday dragged the prime minister and the home minister into the case, naming them in the court trying the 2G spectrum cases.
As finance minister, P Chidambaram had approved the spectrum deals and even Manmohan Singh knew of it, Raja said. His lawyer Sushil Kumar said Raja had done no wrong as he was only following the policies of his predecessors in the telecom ministry and the NDA government. “I cannot be prosecuted for following the law,” Raja said. “In fact, I should be rewarded.”
“There was nothing wrong in the decision of not auctioning the 2G spectrum as he had implemented only what he [Raja] had inherited,” Kumar said. “The matter (about sale of equity by spectrum licencees) was discussed between the PM and Chidambaram, who told Singh that dilution of shares did not amount to sale of 2G licence as per corporate law. Let the PM deny this.”
This also means that Raja cannot be accused of being corrupt while he allocated the 2G spectrum, he said.
An official from the Prime Minister’s Office, who is a prosecution witness in the CBI’s case, has already corroborated Raja claim. Pushpendra Kumar Sharma, section officer in the PMO, recorded his statement before the additional superintendent of police, CBI, on March 9, 2011.
“I’m the custodian of the file from which the said correspondence has taken place and confirm that prime minister Manmohan Singh issued the letter from this file,” he said in his statement.
“I also confirm that the letters received from the Department of Telecom by the PMO were seen and deliberated upon by the addressees, including the PM and TKA Nair, principal secretary to the PM.”
The PMO was always kept in the loop regarding telecom policies, Raja’s counsel Kumar said. “If Raja is being prosecuted for following a certain policy then all telecom ministers since 1993 are liable to be prosecuted as they too followed the same policy. They too should be in jail,” he said.
“Arun Shourie, who was the telecom minister in the NDA government, distributed 26 licences and Dayanidhi Maran distributed 25,” he said. “Raja distributed 122 licences. Numbers make no difference. It should also be noted that none of them auctioned the spectrum.”
“If they had done no wrong, why am I being questioned?” asked Raja. “Let them deny what I am saying… they did not do what I have done. I was just following the 2003 cabinet decision of not auctioning 2G spectrum.”
The hearing would continue on Tuesday. The CBI had argued its case of framing charges against Raja and 16 others, including three telecom firms, from July 21 to 23.
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