2G accused move court to have Trai report on record

A Delhi court today sought CBI's stand on a plea by all 17 accused in the 2G spectrum case, including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi, for making the Trai report a part of the court's records.

All the accused, including the three telecom firms and their promoters, proprietors and top executives, moved the court of Special CBI Judge OP Saini seeking direction to the investigating agency to file the TRAI report, which has said there was no loss to the exchequer in allocation of 2G spectrum.

The report has also recommended against both auctioning of radio waves and revising entry fee for telecom firms.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had assessed a "presumptive loss" of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the state exchequer, while the CBI, during its probe into the 2G scam, had pegged the loss at Rs 30,984 crore.

Seeking its stand on the scam accused plea, Special Judge Saini issued notice to the CBI and fixed September 9 for arguments on their plea.

Appearing for Raja, senior counsel Ramesh Gupta sought the court's direction to the CBI to bring the latest Trai report on court's record.

So did Swan telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa's counsel Vijay Aggarwal. In an application, he told the court, "The CBI has no scientific or technical expertise to determine the loss. In fact, CBI has itself made an admission in the charge sheet that the TRAI report is awaited for calculating the quantum of loss."