A Raja is ‘liar’, misrepresented facts to Manmohan Singh: CBI tells court
New Delhi: The CBI on Friday alleged in a special court that ex-Telecom Minister A Raja was a "consummate liar" and evidence suggests that he had made false representation and misled then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue of allocation of 2G spectrum licences.
Advancing final arguments in 2G spectrum allocation case, special public prosecutor Anand Grover said Raja deliberately misled the then PM in his letter on policy matters regarding concurrence of then solicitor general (SG) G E Vahanvati and then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.
"Accused number one A Raja is a consummate liar. I am making this statement with respect to evidence available on record that he deliberately misrepresented the facts in order to favour accused companies.”
"This (Raja) is a person, who makes a representation to the then Prime Minister through a letter saying he has taken concurrence of then solicitor general G E Vahanvati and then Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee regarding the policy issue, which is not the fact," Grover told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.
Referring to the statement of a prosecution witness who was a former official of Department of Telecommunication, the prosecutor said Raja, in conspiracy with then Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, had even "forged" a press release about change in policy for grant of licences.
"The point was to give some legitimacy to something which did not have any basis," he said, adding that the press release was also sent to the then SG.
"In a press release, how can the opinion of the SG be sought? What was the need to send it to SG," Grover asked. The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on September 7.
Earlier, CBI had said that Raja had a "habit" of making false statements and had "deliberately" told incorrect facts to the then PM on policy issues and also deviated from the prescribed procedures.
Raja, who has denied all charges during his arguments earlier, and 16 others including DMK MP Kanimozhi, are facing trial in the case.
In its charge sheet, CBI had alleged there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2012.
Besides Raja, Kanimozhi and Behura, Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia, promoters of Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and three top executives of Reliance ADAG – Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair -- are facing trial.
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar and Bollywood producer Karim Morani are also accused in the case. Besides these, 14 accused persons, three telecom firms --
Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL), Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd -- are also accused in the case.
The court had on October 22, 2011, framed charges against them under IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe. The offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.
