Hours before the 60-day judicial custody of former minister A Raja was to expire,making him eligible to be released on bail,the CBI today filed its first,80,000-page chargesheet in the 2G spectrum case,charging the DMK MP,his bureaucrat aides and senior officials of Unitech Wireless Pvt Ltd,Swan Telecom and Reliance ADAG with criminal conspiracy,cheating,forgery and under various sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act. While earlier the CBI had estimated the loss to the exchequer at Rs 22,000 crore,as against the CAG estimate of Rs 1.76 lakh crore,the chargesheet puts the loss at Rs 30,984.55 crore. The CBI also fell short of naming DMK leaders as was anticipated following the agencys allegation of money trail of Rs 200 crore from D B Realty to Kalaignar TV. Of the nine accused,four Raja,former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura,former PS to Raja R K Chandolia and director of Swan Telecom Shahid Balwa are already in Tihar jail. The five new accused named in the chargesheet are D B Realty Managing Director Vinod Goenka; Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra; Reliance ADAG Group Managing Director Gautam Doshi; and ADAG Senior Vice-Presidents Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara. Three companies,Swan Telecom,Unitech Wireless and Reliance Telecom Ltd,have been named by the agency,which probed 125 witnesses,including Niira Radia and Attorney General G E Vahnavati,and submitted 654 documents in seven large trunks to prove its charges before the special court constituted specifically for the case. According to the CBI,Unitech Wireless was the biggest beneficiary in the scam,and it and Swan Telecom were the only two firms ineligible for allocation of 2G spectrum. The CBI is likely to file the supplementary chargesheet,naming more accused and adding further charges,by April 25. Taking cognizance of the submission,Special CBI Judge O P Saini observed: I am satisfied there is enough incriminating material on record to proceed against the accused persons. The chargesheet deals with five broad sections: a) Cut-off date; b) Violations of the first come,first served policy; c) Dual technology approvals and spectrum allocation; d) Eligibility of companies; e) Non-revision of the entry fee. Pointing out that at the time of application dated 2.3.2007,Swan Telecom was an associate of ADAG/Reliance Communication Ltd/Reliance Telecom Ltd,having existing UAS licences in all telecom circles,the chargesheet suggests Swan acted as the front company for ADAG (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group). The agency elaborates how Raja,Chandolia,Behura acted hand-in-glove with Balwa and Chandra in formulating the licence policy to favour these companies. Citing an instance of quid pro quo among the accused,the chargesheet notes: Chandolia rented his residential property in Safdarjung Development Area,New Delhi,to Associated Hotels Pvt Ltd (sister concern of D B Realty) on 3.3.2009 for Rs 63,000 per month. Noting that Swan Telecom and Unitech were not eligible on the date of application,the CBI elaborates the procedure through which Raja,in connivance with the other accused,kept the files pending,denying licences to other companies. Stating the links among the accused existed before Raja became telecom minister,that facilitated the criminal conspiracy,the chargesheet adds: Behura,Chandolia had earlier worked with Raja when he was Minister of Environment and Forests and were acquainted with each other. Raja was also familiar with Balwa,Chandra and Goenka in context of various clearances of the MoEF to various real estate projects of their companies. While the judicial custody of four of the accused has been extended till April 13,the judge issued summons to other accused not arrested for the same date. Two persons recently arrested,Balwas cousin Asif Balwa and D B Realty official Rajiv Agarwal,have not been chargesheeted. A Reliance Telecom spokesperson said: The chargesheet is being studied,the persons so named deny the charges and will defend themselves in appropriate legal proceedings.
