Pramod Mahajan to be named in CBI chargesheet on NDA ‘spectrum scam’

Agency gives clean chit to Arun Shourie,who was telecom minister in 2003-04 in NDA regime.

Wrapping up its probe into the alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation during the NDA regime,when the late Pramod Mahajan was the telecom minister,the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will soon file a chargesheet against three private cellular companies and former government officials. The agency will also name Mahajan in a separate column of the chargesheet alleging that he played an active role in the telecom scam which caused a loss of Rs 508 crore to the exchequer.

The retired government officials,former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and former director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited J R Gupta,and telecom companiesBharti Airtel,Hutchison Essar (now Vodafone) and Sterling Cellularwill be named in the chargesheet,said sources. Sources also claimed that government officials during their questioning have put the onus of the decision to grant additional spectrum on Mahajan.

The agency has,however,given a clean chit to Arun Shourie,who was telecom minister between 2003-04 in the NDA regime.

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According to the agency,the accused bureaucrats,on the directions of then telecom minister Pramod Mahajan,entered into a criminal conspiracy with three beneficiary private companies,based at Delhi and Mumbai,and abused their official positions as public servants.

Said a CBI official: The government servants showed undue favour and caused undue cumulative advantage of approximately Rs 508.22 crore to three telecom companies since allocation of such additional spectrum till such decision was reversed by DoT in 2008.

The public servants,with approval of the then Minister of Telecom (Communications & IT) (since expired),took an alleged hurried decision on January 31,2002 to allocate additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz in violation of the report of a Technical Committee etc, the CBI alleged.

The government servants,abusing their official position,also decided to allocate such additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz by charging spectrum fee of an incremental 1 per cent AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) only for allotting additional spectrum from 6.2 MHz up to 10 MHz instead of charging incremental 1% AGR on allotment of spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz and charging incremental 2% AGR on allotment of spectrum beyond 8 MHz,as applicable in normal prudence, said the FIR that the agency filed in November last year.

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