Raja conspired with bureaucrats, industrialists in 2G scam:CBI

New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) A Raja conspired with top
bureaucrats, including a retired IAS officer, and corporate
honchos in allocation of 2G spectrum that resulted in a loss
of Rs 30,984 crore, the premier investigative agency, CBI said
in its indictment of the former Indian Telecom Minister who
has been chargesheeted along with eight others and three
telecom companies in the scam.
The agency, which filed its first chargesheet before a
special court, alleged former Telecom Secretary Siddharth
Behura, Raja's personal secretary R K Chandolia and Swan
Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa and Sanjay Chandra, MD of
Unitech Wireless, entered into a conspiracy for manipulating
the procedure for allocation of spectrum with the aim of
favouring companies like Swan Telecom and Unitech Group.
The chargesheet, running into about 80,000 pages and
brought in seven steel trunks, was filed before CBI judge O P
Saini in a special court constituted exclusively to try the
case that is being monitored by the Supreme Court.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati and corporate lobbyist
Niira Radia have been named among 125 witnesses in the case.
This will be the first time the topmost law officer of the
government will be appearing as a witness in a corruption
case.
CBI will file the supplementary chargesheet by April
25 and is likely to complete its probe by May 31 in the case
that has dented the UPA government's image in less than two
years of its return to power.
Others named in the chargesheet include Vinod Goenka,
a Director of Mumbai-based DB Realty, which was also the
promoter of Etisalat DB, Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director
of Gurgaon-based real estate company Unitech and Unitech
Wireless(Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd and Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and
Surendra Pipara, Group Managing Director and two Senior Vice
Presidents of Mumbai-based Reliance Telecom Company.
The 47-year-old DMK leader, who is at present in jail,
has been charged with cheating, forgery and abuse of official
position under the provisions of Indian Penal Code and
Prevention of Corruption Act.
Raja has been charged with "manipulating" procedures
like advancing the cut-off date in conspiracy with officials
and industrialists by privately conveying to them the
rescheduled date and grant of licences to ineligible
applicants.
In the chargsheet, CBI said Swan Telecom, which was
acting as a front company for Reliance ADAG, and Unitech
Wireless (Tamil Nadu) were ineligible for getting the
licences.
CBI said the gamut of offences were five-fold
including the advancing of cut-off date for receiving
applications for new Unified Access Services Licenses to help
accused companies Swan Telecom and Unitech.