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The CBI on Wednesday told the special court hearing the 2G scam that former telecom minister A Raja had misled the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on policy matters pertaining to the allocation of the spectrum to telecom companies.
The central investigation agency told the court that Raja had deliberately advanced the cut-off date to favour "ineligible" firms like Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and Unitech. Raja's DMK allegedly had close links with Swan.
Commencing final arguments in the case, Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover said that Raja, in conspiracy with other accused, had advanced the cut-off date to favour accused firms in allocation of 2G licences.
He said that the first-come-first-serve (FCFS) policy was changed to favour some of the accused and Raja even rejected the proposal of the then Law Minister who had proposed that some of the key policy issues be referred to the Empowered Group of Ministers.
Referring to the letters written by Raja on November 2, 2007 to the then Prime Minister, Grover said, "He (Raja), infact, misled him (Manmohan Singh) on FCFS and cut-off date."
"Curious things happened in DoT (Department of Telecommunication) which showed that this (change in FCFS policy) was deliberately done to favour the accused," the prosecutor said.
Grover also argued that Raja had changed the cut-off date for receiving applications by the companies for grant of 2G licences to favour accused firms particularly Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd.
Besides Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and others including top corporate executives are facing trial in 2G spectrum scam. The CBI has alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in the allocation of 122 telecom licences which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary RK Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) -- Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair -- are facing trial in the case.
