NewDelhi/Nagpur: The CBI today on Wednesday told a special court that former telecom minister A Raja had misled the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on policy matters pertaining to 2G spectrum allocation.
Raja had deliberately advanced the cut off date to favour accused firms in 2G allocation, CBI told court, adding, 2G spectrum was granted to “ineligible” companies like Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd.
CBI made these charges during the final arguments in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
In its chargesheet, CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.
The CBI has examined 154 witnesses in the case while the accused called 29 witnesses in their defence.
The recording of evidence in the case involving Raja and 16 others had started on November 11, 2011, after the court had framed charges against the 17 accused named in the first two chargesheets filed by the agency.
The court has recorded statements of 154 CBI witnesses, including Reliance ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani, his wife Tina Ambani and former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, running into over 4,400 pages in the case.
Besides Raja and Kanimozhi, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, Raja’s erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, three top executives of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG) — 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.
