Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court in its status report that former Telecom Minister A Raja took bribes from various telecom companies after the licenses were issued.
The ED submitted its status report of investigation in the 2G scam in a sealed envelope before the bench comprising justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly. The report mentions that ED is seeking the help of foreign authorities in tracking the source of money.
The multi-crore foreign transactions relating to the 2G spectrum scam have been traced to at least six countries including Mauritius, the report said. Moreover, the spectrum allocation pay offs were channelled through hawala transactions, the Enforcement Directorate told the apex court in its report.
Senior Advocate KK Venugopal, appearing for ED, said thirty one firms have so far been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate and the statements of 26 companies have been recorded.
The Enforcement Directorate informed the apex court that Letters Rogatory have been sent to Singapore, Cyprus, Jersey and Virgin Islands in connection with the 2G scam. Similar communications were also being sent to two more countries.
The apex Court after going through the report said that prima facie there seems to be violation of law of the land.
"Networks are vast. Their connections are in many countries and prima facie there is a violation of law of land," the court said.
Four different teams of ED were involved in cracking the case.
During the hour-long proceeding, the agency also sought the court`s intervention to restrain the media from questioning its credentials in the case by making "baseless" allegations against it.
The court was hearing a petition filed by an NGO called Centre for Public Interest Litigation on whose plea CBI probe was ordered by the apex court. The apex court is monitoring the investigation in the 2G spectrum allocation scam which allegedly caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer.
In the last hearing on March 1, CBI had in its report named the CEOs and promoters of ten companies as among 63 persons who have come under the scanner for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
With PTI inputs
