Ratan Tata above board in 2G matter, says CBI

For the first time, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said on record that Tata Telecom did not benefit in any way from the massive telecom scam that saw companies getting licences at throwaway prices in 2008 for mobile networks.

"We've examined the issue in detail. There was no irregularity in the issuance of licences to Tata Telecom," stated the CBI today.

The 2G scam is being investigated by the CBI and is being monitored by a special court in Delhi. A Raja, former Telecom Minister, has been arrested along with the executives of some of India's biggest telecom companies. They allegedly conspired to get out-of-turn allotments for spectrum and licences. Reported to be India's largest scam ever, the 2G swindle has whipped up a political tornado, allowing the government to be targeted for nurturing corruption. It has also pushed into jail Kanimozhi, whose party, the DMK, is a major alliance partner in the UPA government at the Centre. Kanimozhi's father, M Karunanidhi, is the head of the DMK.

A petition filed by a lawyer named Dharmendra Pandey had asked that Ratan Tata be made an accused in the 2G case for benefiting from the scam, along with Niira Radia, who handles the PR for his firm. Ms Radia is a witness for the CBI. Her phone was tapped in 2008 and 2009 in connection with an income tax investigation. Her conversations with Kanimozhi, Raja and others blew the lid off the 2G scam.
However, the CBI makes it clear that it is still studying the Tata group for two other deals that the company entered into during 2008 and 2009 when the telecom scam was playing out.  Firstly, it was the Tatas who loaned Rs. 1700 crore that allowed Unitech Wireless to acquire a telecom license from Mr Raja. Unitech- primarily a real estate company till 2008 -has been listed as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the telecom scam and its promoter, Sanjay Chandra, is now in jail on charges of conspiracy and cheating. The loan from the Tatas has been read by some as a sign that Unitech served as a front for the Tata Group, which had already been granted a license to provide mobile services.

Secondly, the Tata Group owned a valuable property in Chennai that was  transferred to Mr Karunanidhi's family at bizarrely low rates, according to the CBI.  Investigators want to know if this was some sort of kickback for the DMK and Mr Raja in exchange for telecom licences.

CAG suspects new spectrum scam, bigger than 2G

Even before the 2G spectrum allocation scam gets unraveled in its entirety, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is said to be suspecting another, bigger than 2G, scam in the allocation of S-band spectrum.

According to a report published by a leading national daily Monday, the CAG is enquiring into a 2005 agreement between the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) commercial arm Antrix Corporation Ltd and Devas Multimedia Private Ltd relating to the allocation of S-band broadband spectrum to the latter without the invitation of competitive bids.

Although, it is too early to decipher the exact figure, but the dubious allocation of spectrum is said to have caused a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore to the national exchequer, as compared to the Rs 1.76 lakh crore presumed loss due to the faulty allocation of 2G spectrum. 

SRO is under the Department of Science, which is directly in the Prime Minister's charge.

The company that allegedly benefited from the deal, Devas Multimedia, is headed by Dr M G Chandrashekhar, who was earlier scientific secretary at ISRO.

“Under the deal, Devas Multimedia is to get access to 70 Mhz of broadband spectrum in the 2500 Mhz band. This was once used by Doordarshan to deliver programmes by satellite to all parts of the country but is now considered to be of enormous commercial value for high-speed, terrestrial mobile communications. In 2010, the Union government got nearly Rs. 67,719 crore from the auction of just 15 Mhz of similar airwaves for 3G mobile services,” the report says.

The CAG suspects foul-play because unlike in earlier contracts, ISRO places no restrictions on Devas Multimedia for onward leasing of spectrum. That means the company could make huge amounts of money by sub-leasing its privileges.

This is said to be the first time that S-band, which ranges from 2500 to 2690 Mhz, has been opened up to the private sector.

The CAG is concerned that ISRO’s internal procedures were flouted, while the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet, and the Space Commission were not fully informed about the contract, including the underestimation of ISRO’s costs, report claim