What’s your stand on CAG report on Raja: SC to Centre

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to furnish its stand on the CAG report on large-scale irregularities and favouritism in 2G spectrum scam. The Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI), however, sought six months to complete its investigation in the scam.A bench comprising Justice G S Singhvi and Justice A K Ganguly directed the Centre’s counsel and Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium to go through the report and respond to it.

According to the draft report, the telecom ministry headed by A Raja ignored the advice of the law ministry and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and allotted the license by favouring "ineligible" companies at the lower rate on first-cum-first basis by arbitrarily deciding the cut off date.

The court posted the matter for further hearing on October 22 without perusing the status reports filed by CBI and enforcement directorate into the investigations in the scam. It returned the reports filed in sealed covers to both the agencies stating that it will consider them during the next date of hearing. The court said that the copy of the CAG report was to be supplied to Raja’s counsel and former Solicitor General T R Andhyarujina. Mr Subramanium during the course of hearing said he would like to allay any apprehension that investigations would not be fair. "We are bound to conduct fair investigation," he said.

However, he said it would be premature to say anything at this stage about the final conclusion of the investigations in which more than one government agencies was involved.

Mr Subramanium said, the FIR relating to the scam was registered against unnamed persons a year ago and the matter has undergone judicial scrutiny in the Delhi high court and the apex court. "Today, we have a situation where co-ordination is required between CBI and other government agencies like ED, income-tax department and others," he said seeking six months time to undertake a comprehensive probe.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, on behalf of petitioner NGO questioned the role of CBI saying even after the registration of FIR a year ago, none of the persons has been interrogated or arrested. The petition alleged that financial irregularities were committed by Mr Raja in connivance with certain middlemen including lobbyist Niira Radia in the allocation of 2G spectrum. Mr Bhushan said, neither Mr Raja nor Ms Radia has been interrogated or arrested till now despite the tapped conversation clearly throwing sufficient light on their alleged involvement in the scam.

He also informed the court that the income-tax officer, who was handling the transcript of the tapped conversation and was co-ordinating with CBI, has been transferred. According to the petitioner NGO, in January 2008, DoT had awarded 122 Universal Access Service licenses with spectrum on first-com-first served basis at the rate of `1,658.57 crores at a price discovered in the auction of spectrum in the year 2001.