CBI knows who handled 2G bribe money: Shourie

Talking to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta for NDTV 24x7's Walk The Talk, he said the CBI was aware that representatives of the beneficiary companies would often bring prepared notes in pen drives for former Telecom Minister A Raja to sign and the Minister would oblige.

"CBI knows...that the officer has said -- to such an extent -- that these companies' representatives used to bring the note which he needs to sign on a pen drive. It used to be put into my (the officer's) computer, a print taken and Raja would sign it. To this extent the CBI knows. CBI knows the identity of the front companies that were used -- front companies for money transactions," he said.

Asked whether these were "bribe" transactions, he replied, "I would have no doubt." "Otherwise, they are not doing charity here and the correspondence is there. The correspondence of the licenses being given and the company suddenly prospering. They suddenly become very great consultants. They suddenly get very great infrastructure projects. They can't show which is the bridge they have built.

"The CBI knows the identity of the critical person who handled the money and it is a mystery to the other officers as to why that particular officer is not been questioned to this date..." he said. He said that Raja had "personal relations" with some of the firms who bagged licenses. "It is now well known to the CBI through the officers who were dealing with the matter. A pattern was also visible."

Asked whether he thought the CBI knows exactly what has happened, he said "I have no doubt at all. Because in some cases, the very officers who were handling the material....manipulation have testified to the CBI...The officers have told me what they had told the CBI." He claimed that he had conveyed this to "higher persons" in the government, but nothing happened.


CBI knows who handled 2G bribe money: Shourie

Shourie asserted that the CBI knows who the person is and said if the investigating agency questions him now, he may reveal what had transpired.

The CBI, however, was caught in procedural wrangling over seeking permission to question that person. He said the CBI should go ahead and if the "government refuses (sanction), that, of course, will prove the point."

Shourie also criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that without his knowledge, the pricing of spectrum would not have been kept out of the purview of the Group of Ministers which was set up to decide on the release of spectrum during UPAI. "The accommodation of allies by the PM...because in the terms of reference with these Group of Ministers the pricing of spectrum was included and Raja insisted that no, this should be taken out and somehow this was taken out from the reference of the Group of Ministers. It could not have been done in our system without the knowledge of the PM," he said.

CBI knows who handled 2G bribe money: Shourie

He said he would be surprised if the Prime Minister did not have knowledge about it. In any case, he said Raja would use the argument about the PM's knowledge to defend himself in court. Asked about the BJP's insistence on a JPC probe, Shourie questioned its effectiveness. "Actually, I'm hardly in touch with the party (BJP) as a party now. They are good friends as individuals but with great respect to the opposition this is not the right demand at all. There is a record of JPCs. There was a JPC on Harshad Mehta...JPC on Bofors. What happened? Nothing happened," he said.

Shourie said that just like it did with the Gujarat riot cases, the Supreme Court should monitor the investigation in the case. "We should plead with the Government please do not oppose the plea for Supreme Court supervision," he said.

Shourie said setting up of a JPC was "not a good idea" from the "point of view of citizens." What was needed, he said, was a swift investigation, trial and certain and severe punishment. The JPC, he said, "actually becomes an excuse (for the government) to say that we will not talk and let the JPC come out with its report." He was of the view that the BJP or the opposition would not benefit much politically as the mere fact that got the Government to order a JPC probe into the issue would not appeal much to the masses.

Shourie, a former Telecom Minister, rejected Raja's arguments that he was following on his predecessors' footsteps. He said Raja did not follow the first-come first-serve principle as there were 167 applications lying in the Telecom Department even before the process of allocation had begun in 2007.

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