November 27, 2012
New Delhi — An official of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) deposed in a Delhi court Monday and identified the letters exchanged between former telecom minister A. Raja and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 over the 2G spectrum allocation.
November 27, 2012
New Delhi — An official of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) deposed in a Delhi court Monday and identified the letters exchanged between former telecom minister A. Raja and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007 over the 2G spectrum allocation.
Section Officer Pushpendra Kumar Sharma identified the letters written by Raja, the main accused in the 2G case, to the prime minister Nov 2, 2007, and Dec 26, 2007.
Sharma told Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini that on March 9, 2011, he had sent a letter to the probe agency detailing the correspondence between Raja and the prime minister.
He told the court: "The correspondence sent by me to the CBI includes letter of A. Raja to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dated Nov 2, 2007, and another letter of the same date from Raja to the prime minister…it also included a letter of Dec 26, 2007, written by Raja to prime minister along with its annexures."
According to the CBI charge sheet, Raja Nov 2, 2007, had written to the prime minister "misrepresenting the facts and fraudulently justifying his decision" related to the spectrum allocation.
Raja ignored the advice of the prime minister that the availability of 2G spectrum be assessed before the grant of licenses, the CBI alleged.
The court Nov 11, 2011, started the daily trial after accepting the CBI plea and framing graft and other charges against 17 accused, including Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi. All individual accused are out on bail.
According to the government auditor, Raja was biased while distributing second generation (2G) mobile airwaves and operating licenses to telecom firms, causing a loss of up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore in revenue to the treasury.
Courtesy: IANS
