CBI raids DoT over 2G licences...

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday raided Sanchar Bhavan, the premises of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), as part of a probe initiated into a scam in spectrum allotment, which, political parties say cost the government Rs 60,000 crore.

The Central Vigilance Commission had recently referred to CBI allegations of malpractice in the allocation of 2G spectrum, which is said to have spurred losses of “thousands of crores” to the exchequer.

In focus are eight telecom companies which got spectrum in January 2008 — Unitech Wireless, Swan Telecom, Loop Telecom, STel, Sistema, Allianz, Datacom and Spice.
The raids were conducted under Section 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

Telecom companies in India offering second-generation, or the so-called 2G mobile services, got start-up spectrum for free to commence mobile telephony operations.
The licence fee for pan-India operations was Rs 1,651 crore, and, along with the licence fee, companies also got 4.4 MHz start-up spectrum for free as against the global practice of auctioning spectrum.

In all, 120 letters of intent at Rs 1,651 crore each were issued.

Interestingly, the licence trading started soon after. Swan bagged the licence to operate 13 circles for Rs 1,537 crore. In September 2008, it sold 45% stake to Etisalat, the UAE telecom giant, for Rs 4,500 crore.

Unitech got a licence to operate in 22 circles for Rs 1,651 crore. In a few weeks, it sold 60% stake to Norwegian company telenor for Rs 6,120 crore.

This free spectrum caused massive losses to the Government of India, it is said.
Following the allotment, there was a lot of hue and cry from political parties.
The opposition raised the matter in Parliament and demanded the sacking of telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, and sought a CBI probe.

Earlier on Wednesday, the CBI registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against unnamed telecom officials and private players.

Confirming the raid and the probe, a CBI spokesperson said: “It has been alleged that there have been serious irregularities in the award of Unified Access Services Licences to private companies. As per information received, there was a criminal conspiracy between certain officials of Department of Telecommunication (DoT), some private persons/companies.”

“The conspiracy was to award licences to these private telecom players by putting a cap on the number of applicants against the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Further, the licences were awarded on a first come first serve basis at rates prevalent in 2001, without following the due process of competitive bidding,” the spokesperson said.

The sleuths were still conducting searches late Thursday evening at the DoT offices.
According to CBI officials, the offices of wireless planning cell and the deputy director general, access services, were searched.

“Several records pertaining to allocation of spectrum to new telecom players have been seized. The documents will have to be examined to see if there were any irregularities in the allocation process,” said a senior CBI official.