2G case: A Raja was main conspirator, favoured firms: CBI

The arguments will continue on September 10

CBI today told a special court that former Telecom Minister A Raja was the "main conspirator" of the 2G spectrum scam and had favoured accused telecom firms in the allocation of radiowaves licences.

Advancing final arguments in the case, special public prosecutor Anand Grover said Raja, from the very begining, had "deliberately" favoured the accused firms and everything was strategically planned to grant them the spectrum licences.

"He was the main conspirator. To favour the accused companies, first he changed the cut-off date for receiving applications from October 10, 2007 to October 1, 2007 for firms seeking 2G licences, in which out of 575 applicant companies, 408 applications were kept out of the race," Grover told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.

He alleged that Raja also rejected then union Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj's suggestion that the issue of spectrum allocation be referred to Group of Ministers which was apparently done to get rid of any scrutiny by anyone else.

"Further, to assuage the then Prime Minister's concerns over the issue, he (Raja) wrote a letter to him that he is prescribing with existing norms of first-come, first-serve policy and that he has also taken the concurrence of then solicitor general and Minister of External Affairs in this regard, which was not the case," Grover claimed.

He said Raja's decision to decide the eligiblity for grant of spectrum on the basis of compliance conditions of Letters of Intent (LoIs) was unilateral and did not come from the department.

"Then the draft press release was also forged about the concurrence of then solictor general," Grover said.

He said that four counters were set up to receive the applications from the firms which was done on the basis of slip of paper prepared by former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura and Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia and not as per the department's file notings.

"The structures of four counters were strategically planned to give an unfair advantage to the accused companies as they knew who all are in the queue and who is going to be rejected," he said.

The arguments remained inconclusive and will continue on September 10.