A Raja ignored then PM's advise on the issue of entry fee: CBI

Former Telecom Minister A Raja had ignored the advise of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of considering revision of entry fee for 2G spectrum licences, CBI today told a special court.
During the final arguments in 2G spectrum allocation scam case, special public prosecutor Anand Grover said that Raja had responded in a "hurry" to the Prime Minister's November 2, 2007 letter in which Singh had asked Raja to consider revision of entry fee and it indicated that there was a conspiracy.
"In the Prime Minister's November 2, 2007 letter, he had asked Raja to consider revision of entry fee. Raja's response to the Prime Minister indicates another circumstance of conspiracy," he told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.

Grover further said "there was no specific answer to the specific issue of revision of entry fee in Raja's letter to the Prime Minister."
He also argued that the Prime Minister is the head of council of ministers and "any request or suggestion by the Prime Minister to a minister to consider any issue has to be taken very seriously by the minister."
He also claimed that Raja had also ignored the advise of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and this was another circumstance which indicated the "rush to favour Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL)".

Grover's arguments today remained inconclusive and would continue tomorrow.

Besides Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, STPL promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka and three top 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 accused 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 the accused have denied the allegations levelled against them by CBI.