Agency to take decision on filing of an additional FIR after former telecom minister’s appearance on Monday.
BJP leader and former telecom minister Arun Shourie's input to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the norms related to spectrum allocation and its pricing since 2001, is expected to be critical for the agency in its ongoing probe into the 2G controversy. Shourie will appear before the CBI on Monday.
A decision on whether an additional first information report (FIR) needs to be filed, regarding the dual licence aspect of the 2G spectrum scam, will be taken after the meeting, CBI officials said.
Earlier this month, the CBI had asked Shourie to be part of the investigation. Shourie was the telecom minister from January 2003 to May 2004 during the NDA regime.
The investigating agency had earlier registered a preliminary inquiry against unknown persons on the directions of the Supreme Court. The agency wants to ascertain whether and how the first-come-first-serve policy was followed till now.
According to the Supreme Court directive, the CBI has to register a case with particular emphasis on the loss caused to the exchequer and the corresponding gain to the licencee and service providers. The court in its order had asked the CBI to investigate and register a case on why and how some telcos were allowed to use dual or alternative technology even before the decision was made public on October 19, 2007.
CBI sleuths are studying whether the matter can be clubbed with the existing FIR. The FIR was registered after the Central Vigilance Commission conducted an inquiry in 2009 into the allocation of the 2G spectrum and found grave irregularities.
While the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) estimated the loss caused to the national exchequer at Rs 1.76 lakh crore under the former telecom minister A Raja, the CBI put the figure at Rs 50,000 crore before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recently.
Raja’s brother-in-law quizzed
Meanwhile, widening the coverage of the investigation, CBI today questioned A Raja's brother-in-law Rangarajan and also issued summons to the former minister's close associate Sadiq Batcha for February 23. Batcha, Managing Director of Green House, is suspected to have laundered a part of the money received as bribe in the scam.
