New Delhi: A Raja conspired with top
bureaucrats, including a retired IAS officer, and corporate
honchos to cause a loss of Rs 30,984 crore in the allocation
of 2G spectrum, the CBI said in its indictment of the former
Telecom Minister who has been chargesheeted along with eight
others and three telecom companies.
The agency, which filed its first chargesheet before a
special court, alleged that former Telecom Secretary Siddharth
Behura, Raja`s personal secretary R K Chandolia and Swan
Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa and Sanjay Chandra, MD of
Unitech wireless, entered into a conspiracy for manipulating
the procedure for allocation of spectrum with the aim of
favouring companies like Swan Telecom and Unitech Group.
The chargesheet, running into about 80,000 pages and
brought in seven steel trunks, was filed before CBI judge O P
Saini in the special court constituted exclusively to try the
case that is being monitored by the Supreme Court.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati and corporate lobbyist
Niira Radia have been named among 125 witnesses in the case.
This will be the first time the topmost law officer of the
government will be appearing as a witness in a corruption
case.
CBI will file the supplementary chargesheet by April
25 and is likely to complete its probe by May 31 in the case
that has dented the UPA government`s image in less than two
years of its return to power.
Others named in the chargesheet include Vinod Goenka,
a Director of Mumbai-based DB Realty, which was also the
promoter of Etisalat DB, Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director
of Gurgaon-based real estate company Unitech and Unitech
Wireless(Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd and Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and
Surendra Pipara, Group Managing Director and two Senior Vice
Presidents of Mumbai-based Reliance Telecom Company.
The 47-year-old DMK leader, who is at present in jail,
has been charged with cheating, forgery and abuse of official
position under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and
Prevention of Corruption Act.
Raja has been charged with "manipulating" procedures
like advancing the cut-off date in conspiracy with officials
and industrialists by privately conveying to them the
rescheduled date and grant of licenses to ineligible
applicants.
In the chargsheet, CBI said Swan Telecom, which was
acting as a front company for Reliance ADAG, and Unitech
Wireless (Tamil Nadu) were ineligible for getting the
licences.
CBI said the gamut of offences were five-fold
including the advancing of cut-off date for receiving
applications for new Unified Access Services Licenses to help
accused companies Swan Telecom and Unitech.
The agency also dealt with the criminality involved in
the decision-taking mechanism by Raja and officials of the
Department of Telecom with regard to first-come-first-serve
(FCFS) policy, allowing dual technology to telecom companies
and granting licences to ineligible companies and loss caused
to the national exchequer.
The CBI prosecutor, who placed the chargesheet before the
court, said Unitech Group of companies, which were ineligible
for the spectrum, were the greatest beneficiary of the scam as
its Managing Director Sanjay Chandra was actively involved in
the conspiracy with Raja, Behura, Chandolia and Balwa.
"Investigation has disclosed that the Unitech group of
companies, having object clauses of realty, did not even have
their object clauses under Memorandum and Articles of
Association amended before applying to enter in the business
of telecom. Unitech companies fraudulently concealed critical
information in this regard to avoid rejection for being
ineligible," the chargesheet stated.
Further, CBI alleged investigations revealed that Swan
Telecom had no business history and it was activated only on
behalf of Reliance ADAG to get the spectrum.
"Investigation has revealed that in January-February
2007, accused Gautam Doshi, Surender Pipara and Hari Nair in
furtherance of their common intention to cheat the DoT,
structured/created net worth of company Swan Telecom Pvt ltd
out of funds arranged from Reliance telecom ltd", the
chargesheet said.
PTI
