Former telecom minister A. Raja, facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, has approached the Delhi high court seeking quashing of the charges framed against him by a special CBI court in the multi-crore scam case.
Mr Raja is a key witness in the case pertaining to grant of Unified Access Service (UAS) Licenses and 2G spectrum by the department of telecommunications in 2008 during his tenure as the telecom minister. The allegations against him pertain to non-revision of entry fee and non-auction of spectrum, fixation of the cut-off date for allocation of the licences, alleged violation of First Come First Serve Policy and receipt of unaccounted money by Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd.
In his plea, filed through advocate Manu Sharma, Mr Raja has sought quashing of the charges under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act framed against him by Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini in October 2011 following filing of the chargesheet in the case by the investigative agency.
In his petition, the DMK MP has said that the specific recommendation of the telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) regarding 2G spectrum was that there should be no auction and the same entry fee should be charged from the new UASL applicants. “The justification for this is that the paramount objectives of the government were to increase competition in the telecom sector and thereby increase tele density and make the services affordable. This would not be possible if the entry fee were to be kept high or if start-up spectrum was auctioned,” his plea states.
It claims that as a result of the policy followed for spectrum allocation under his leadership, the central government suffered no financial loss.
“The government policy over the years, while abandoning revenue maximisation, has yielded benefits. The average tariff came down from almost Rs 17 per minute in 1999 to 30 paise per minute today. This is a direct and tangible benefit. The benefit of this reduction in tariff is estimated at over Rs 1,50,000 crore per annum to the consumers,” his petition states. It further says “The learned special judge failed to appreciate that the decisions and actions of the petitioner as the MoCIT on the issue relating to allotment and pricing of 2G spectrum were fully in conformity with the consistent policy of the DoT”.
Mr Raja’s plea is likely to come up before Justice A.K. Pathak on Monday. The former Union minister has been charged under IPC Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 468 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine forged document) and 420 (cheating). He has also been charged under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act which pertains to public servants.