2G verdict: Meet Vinod Rai, the man who gave a number to the spectrum scam

Former CAG Vinod Rai's office is credited with pegging the notional loss to the exchequer on account of 2G spectrum allocation on a 'first-come-first-served' basis in 2008 at Rs 1.76 lakh crore

The CBI special court of judge O P Saini on December 21 acquitted all the accused in the so-called 2G spectrum scam, as the prosecution failed to prove any case against them. Questions are also being raised on the erstwhile CAG Vinod Rai's calculation pegging the notional loss to the exchequer on account of the allocation of spectrum in 2008 on a 'first-come-first-served' basis at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. This ‘Newsmaker’ piece by Joe C Matthew on Rai, originally published on November 11, 2010, is being republished with minor tweaks, as the Congress, which was in power at the Centre