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| Edited By: |Source: PTI |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 02:22 AM IST
Tata Tele Services Ltd and Spice Communication were hit hard by the conspiracy hatched by former telecom minister A Raja and others, including Shahid Usman Balwa and Vivek Goenka of Swan Telecom and Sanjay Chandra of Unitech Wireless Ltd, in the allocation of the second-generation mobile telephony spectrum allocation, CBI alleged today.
The CBI charge sheet filed in the special court, trying the 2G spectrum allocation case, said Tata Tele Services Ltd and Spice Communications, which were having prority over Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd in terms of the dual technology approvals were "unreasonably deprived" for allocation of spectrum for Delhi circle.
The other main players in the conspiracy were former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and Raja's personal secretary RK Chandolia.
"Raja, in conspiracy with Behura, Chandolia, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and Sanjay Chandra of Unitech, allocated spectrum to Swan Telecom in Delhi circle unreasonably depriving Tata Tele Services Ltd and Spice Communications, which were having prority over Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd in terms of the dual technology approvals and seniority of new applicants as per date of applications respectively," the charge sheet said.
Chandolia had also threatened several senior telecom ministry officials to ensure grant of spectrum to Swan Telecom which was ineligible for getting the spectrum licence, CBI alleged.
The CBI probe revealed that the former minister's aide had pressurised senior ministry officials to allocate spectrum licence to Swan Telecom in preference to Tata Teleservices Ltd which, as per the DoT policy, was the preferred firm for allocation of spectrum in Delhi.
"Accused RK Chandolia, by abusing his official position as a public servant, pressurised and threatened RP Aggarwal, the wireless planning and coordination wing chief, to put up the file for allocation of spectrum to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd," economic affairs secretary R Gopalan noted in the CBI finding while according sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chadolia, an IES officer.
"It clearly shows his criminal conspiracy with A Raja in getting the spectrum allocated to Swan Telecom prior to Tata Teleservices Ltd which did not get the spectrum in Delhi because available spectrum here was sufficient to cater to the requirement of only one licencee," said Gopalan's order dated April 1, 2011.
