Raja acted dishonestly to fix spectrum prices at 2001 rate

'Raja acted dishonestly to fix spectrum prices at 2001 rate'

The probe into the 2G spectrum scam has revealed that former Telecom Minister A Raja "deliberately and dishonestly" did not consider auction or revision of entry fee and threw away the licences of radio waves at the rate prevailing in 2001, depriving the government of huge revenue, the CBI has said. 

The agency alleged that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by Raja with Managing Director of Unitech Ltd Sanjay Chandra, Swan Telecom Promoter Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Director of Mumbai-based DB Realty, to adopt the price of 2001 by ignoring the concerns raised by various sections of the government.

The CBI in its charge sheet filed in a special court yesterday said that it was only the Swan and Unitech which conspired with Raja as "no material could be collected during the investigation conducted so far that other UASL (Unified Access Service Licence) applicant companies also conspired with accused A Raja and other accused public servant not to enhance the entry fee".

The CBI also said that despite "repeated suggestions" from various corners of the government, Raja did not consider auction or revision of the entry fee.

"Investigation has disclosed that accused Raja, despite the repeated suggestions from various corners of the government for the revision of entry fee to be charged from the new UAS licencees and dual technology applicants, deliberately and dishonestly did not consider auction or revision of entry fee, and gave away licences at same fee which was discovered in 2001," the charge sheet said.

Elaborating the criminal conspiracy between Raja, Chandra, Balwa and Goenka, the CBI said that Raja ignored the concerns raised and "deprived the government exchequer of possible revenues which could have accrued, even retaining the level playing field for the new operators."