Raja ignored telecom secy’s warnings

There seems to be no end to former telecom minister A Raja’s trouble with beginning of testimony of former telecom secretary DK Mathur who on Monday told the CBI that whenever he objected to certain policy issue pertaining to issuance of spectrum, he was sent on tour or told by the minister that he will look into the issue personally.

Mathur’s revelation can prove dangerous for Raja as he told the CBI special judge OP Saini that he had warned the minister against advancing the cut off date to receive applications for the 2G licences as the same may be considered arbitrary and could give rise to legal complications.

Mathur said when he raised the issue, Raja had told him that he would reconsider his decision to advance the cut off date from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007 and then sent him on a tour.

Mathur said though he did not put his advise on record, he had personally taken the file to Raja.  “I recorded this note (of November 5, 2007) after seeing the order of the then minister (Raja) dated November 2, 2007, as fixing the (cut off) date of September 25, 2007 may be considered arbitrary and it may give rise to legal complications later on,” he said.

“When I spoke to the minister, he told me that the aforesaid decision would be reconsidered and he wanted to discuss the matter in future,” Mathur said.

The CBI had alleged that Raja, in collusion with others, had decided to keep September 25, 2007 as the cut off date for considering the applications for UASL to wrongly benefit Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka - all facing trial in the case.

“I expressed apprehension that in the given situation there was a likelihood of causing injustice to some applicants or the other and the purpose of writing this note was to first frame a guideline so that every applicant gets its due,” Mathur told the court. The testimony will continue on Tuesday as well.