A K Srivastava, a former Deputy Director General (AS) of the DoT, testified this in the court after counsel appearing for Sidharath Behura, former telecom secretary and an accused in the case, asked him about a January 7, 2008 note of the DoT containing details of first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy.
"Kindly take a look on your note dated January 7, 2008... wherein you yourself have recorded that an applicant, who fulfills the conditions of LoI first will be granted licence first. Could you please elaborate this in the light of your answer above," Behura's counsel S P Minocha asked Srivastava.
Srivastava answered the query saying the related paragraph in the January 7, 2008 note is "an extract of letter written by MOC&IT (Raja) to the Prime Minister on December 26, 2007."
"I was asked to treat the contents of this letter as policy directives for licensing matters ... These are not the views of the AS cell or myself as the said letter was neither processed nor put up by AS cell," he said.
"It is wrong to suggest that this was the policy decided by DoT and subsequently communicated to the PM," he deposed, adding, "The said policy was neither discussed in the DoT nor I had any occasion to apply my mind to the same."
Raja, in a December 26, 2007 letter to the Prime Minister, had given details about the procedures to be adopted for the distribution of LoIs to the companies and the FCFS policy.
The CBI, in its charge sheet, had alleged that Raja, in conspiracy with other accused, had changed the FCFS policy to favour some telecom companies. (More)