CBI to bring more charges on Raja

Draft chargesheet on March 29 to also name two companies.

The Central Bureau of Investigation told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it would expand the charges against former Union telecom minister A Raja to include forgery, cheating, criminal conspiracy and several more charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The chargesheet, to be filed by March 31, will also name two companies.

“This is only the beginning and many people and companies would also be charge-sheeted later on,” CBI counsel K K Venugopal told a bench of judges G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly.

Raja resigned after an adverse report on the issue from the Union comptroller and auditor general (CAG) and court observations. He was arrested last month and is in the city’s central jail.

The CBI also informed the judges, who were monitoring the progress of investigations into the telecom spectrum allocation scam, that the draft charge sheet would be placed before them on March 29. Attorney General G E Vahanvati informed the judges that the special court of sessions judge O P Saini, designated to hear the trial of the accused, is to become functional by March 31.

Prashant Bhushan, counsel for the petitioner organisation, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, asked the judges to appoint two or three serving or retired officers for day to day monitoring of the investigation. Bhushan had said it was impossible to monitor the investigation by just going through the status reports before the court.

The hearing has been adjourned till March 29. CBI assured the court that a number of multi-national companies and their CEOs were being questioned to unearth the scope of the scandal. Venugopal said some security angles were also being investigated, especially with regard to Chinese equipment being imported by some companies.

The court asked the government to throw light on the policy of first-come-first-served for spectrum allocation, as there were conflicting versions about where it orgiginated. The judges asked the Attorney General to clarify the matter tomorrow.

During the proceedings, the judges made it clear they would not go by the reports of either the Shivraj Patil inquiry panel into the matter or that of the CAG. They were responding to Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising saying some of the aspects had already been referred to in those reports.

CBI questions AG, RBI chief
Separately, the CBI on Wednesday quizzed Vahanvati and Reserve Bank chief D Subbarao on the issue of telecom policies for spectrum allocation during Raja’s tenure. Subbarao was Union finance secretary at the time of the controversial 2G spectrum allocation in 2007, and had then raised concern over the first-come-first-served telecom policy.

The CAG came out with a report last year, estimating the loss to the exchequer at Rs 1.76 lakh crore for taking the first-come-first-served route, rather than going for an auction to allocate 2G spectrum in 2007-08.

CBI asked Vahanvati about a press release issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on the allocation of 2G spectrum on a first come-first-serves basis and shifting the cut-off date for receiving applications.

The release was sent to him by DoT for approval. But Vahanvati told CBI the press release had been ‘tinkered with’ and two paragraphs were deleted to benefit some interested parties.

According to CBI officials, Vahanvati’s statement would help in strengthening the case against Raja. Subbarao told CBI he had suggested staying the implementation of the decision on spectrum and also asked for the communication details of permission for granting the spectrum.