A Raja concludes his final arguments in 2G spectrum scam case

Former Telecom Minister A Raja today concluded his final arguments in 2G spectrum allocation scam case before a special court, claiming there was no evidence to show he was aware of the Rs 200 crore transaction between DMK-run Kalaignar TV and DB Group firm.
Raja told Special CBI Judge O P Saini that the agency has alleged that Rs 200 crore was bribe which was paid to the DMK -run TV channel in lieu of 2G licence granted to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL) but CBI has failed to produce any evidence that he had helped in any way in the transaction.

"There is no evidence that I was aware of the fact that DMK was running a TV channel and such a transaction took place. What evidence is there that I was helping Kalaignar TV? Prosecution has gone on an assumption that just because I was a leader of DMK party so I knew who had invested money in the channel," Raja's counsel Manu Sharma told the court.
He argued that CBI's allegation that Swan and Unitech had made "windfall gain" by offloading shares to foreign firms Etisalat and Telenor was completely false.
"It was induction of additional equity in Swan and Unitech by foreign partners. This was not offloading of shares at all by the promoters of Swan and Unitech and so there is no question of windfall gain," he said, adding that induction of additional equity was permissible under the law.

Regarding the allegation that Raja had granted licences to ineligible firms, his counsel said this issue was being dealt with by officials of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and not by the then Telecom Minister.

The court has now fixed the matter for final arguments on February 15.
Besides Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Unitech Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra, STPL promoters Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka and three executives of Reliance ADAG - Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair - are facing trial in the case.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also facing trial in the case, besides three telecom companies -- Reliance Telecom Ltd, STPL and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd.

In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012. All these accused, who are out on bail, have denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI.