The decision to allocate additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz to Bharti Airtel in 2002 was done in “undue haste” with an intention keeping in mind the ongoing initial public offering (IPO) of Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd that opened on January 28, 2002 and closed on February 2, 2002, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has communicated to the secretary of the Department of Personnel & Training.
It is also stated that Pramod Mahajan, the then minister for Ministery of Communications and IT, has taken the decision himself, in consultation with the officials of the Department of Telecom for allocating additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz up to 10 MHz by charging only one per cent of AGR, violating the rules.
The proposal was not discussed with either the Telecom Commission or the Member (Finance). According to CBI, the technical committee of DoT had recommended allotment of additional spectrum beyond 6.2 Mhz only after the operator’s subscriber base reaches 9 lakh, but the same was reduced by to 4 lakhs for applying additional spectrum and 5 lakh for actual allocation. The CBI communication has pointed out that Bharti Cellular was the only company to have 4 lakh subscribers as on December 2001 and 5 lakh on January 31, 2002 when the decision was taken.
In response to a detailed questionnaire, a Bharti spokesperson declined to comment on the issue.
This communications was made just few days after CBI had written to the Attorney General of India (AG) seeking legal opinion on certain issues relating to the investigation. In the letter, CBI has mentioned that as the views of the executive officers or law officers were different with those of the Director of Prosecution (DOP) who has said that no case was made out against any of the accused telecom companies or any promoters of such companies.
CBI has sought the views of the Attorney General of India (AG) recently on different issues relating to the case. The CBI has sought the AG’s views on if the companies concerned or the officials of the companies or both should be accused for punishment.
It has also sought AG’s opinion on if the present entities could be liable for the misdoings of the erstwhile companies, as there have been mergers and acquisitions since the decision was taken.
The stream of communciations has been triggered after nearly a year long investigation by the investigative agency which last year had named —Bharti Cellular (now Bharti Airtel), Hutchison Max & Sterling Cellular (now Vodafone Essar) — in an FIR over alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation. That time, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime during Pramod Mahajan’s tenure as telecom minister had come under attack.
The FIR was also filed against former Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary Shyamal Ghosh and former deputy director general of DoT JR Gupta in the same case, alleging criminal conspiracy under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
CBI has alleged that Ghosh and Gupta, with Mahajan’s permission, took a hurried decision on January 1, 2002, to allocate additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz — in violation of the report of a technical committee in the telecom ministry.
The investigating agency had carried out raids on the premises of Ghosh, Gupta, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar across Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai. It registered a case of excess allocation of spectrum to the two telcos in 2001-02, when Mahajan was the telecom minister.
In its latest communication, CBI has also mentioned that Bharti officials’ association with Mahajan and DoT officials had influenced the decision. However, CBI had also pointed out that it could not surface any evidence indicating any overt act or criminal intent on the part of any person belonging to the accused companies, including Bharti Airtel, Hutschison Max Telecom and Sterling Cellular.
According to the CBI communication, the entire exercise has given cumulative pecuniary advantage of about Rs 846 crore to beneficiary companies and corresponding the same loss to the government exchequer.