Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The CBI on Tuesday said that they have not found any evidence against former telecom minister Arun Shourie in the 2G Spectrum case during the probe carried out so far.
The agency was asked to investigate the grant of licences to telecom firms between 2001 to 2007,which also included the tenure of Arun Shourie,who was telecom minister from January 2003 to May 2004. We have questioned several person during our probe,including former telecom secretaries,and examined the files obtained from DoT. We have not found anything against Shourie so far, said top sources.
Shourie,who was called for questioning at the CBI headquarters on February 25 this year,had alleged that his successor Dayanidhi Maran had tweaked the TRAI guidelines in 2005 to benefit some operators.
He also clarified on the controversial first-come first-serve policy which was formulated during his tenure. Officials,however,said that they were still investigating the role of former telecom minister Pramod Mahajan,and are verifying the extra allotment of spectrum to two major telecom companies during his tenure.
The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry for the period between 2001-07. The agency is also probing the allegation of coercion and delay against former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran,who was in-charge from 2004 to 2007.
Maran was accused by former Aircel chief C Sivasankaran of delaying the grant of telecom licences to Aircel when he owned it.
