Had informed SG about cut-off date: Raja tells court

Former Telecom Minister A Raja today told a Delhi court that the then Solicitor General(SG) G E Vahanvati was informed that applications seeking 2G spectrum licence received till September 25, 2007 only would be processed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Deposing as a witness to defend himself in the ongoing 2G case trial, Raja denied the suggestion of CBI prosecutor that pages of the DoT's note sheet regarding cut-off date were only meant for internal consumption of the department and not for SG.
"It was brought to the notice of the learned SG through the note sheet..., where it was clearly mentioned that 575 applications were received by the department, and that the applications received upto September 25, 2007 were going to be taken for processing for issuing LOI.

"Though the date of October 1, 2007 is not mentioned in the file. However, the number of applications received upto October 1, 2007 have been mentioned ...," Raja told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.
Raja, whose cross examination will continue tomorrow, had yesterday said that the decision about the cut-off date of September 25, 2007 for processing of applications seeking 2G spectrum licence was taken after "due deliberations" in DoT.
He had denied the suggestion of CBI prosecutor that he had decided the cut-off date of September 25, 2007 without any basis.
CBI, in its charge sheet, had alleged that in order to favour Unitech and Swan Telecom, Raja unilaterally advanced the cut-off date from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007 for processing applications for grant of 2G licences and had ignored various authorities including the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the Law Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office.