[ Date : Dec 16th, 2010 ]
The Supreme Court has announced that it will monitor the CBI’s inquiry into the outsize 2G scam.
The court said that the inquiry must extend to the process followed in 2001 for awarding telecom licenses, when the BJP-led NDA was in power. That’s bound to be used in political combat by the government, which has faced unprecedented heat by the BJP and other Opposition parties over the roles of A Raja and the Prime Minister.
Raja was forced to resign as Telecom Minister last month, after the government’s auditor pinned him down as the epicenter of India’s largest-ever scam, worth Rs. 1.76 lakh crore, according to the auditor’s report. Raja allegedly colluded with bureaucrats and companies to virtually gift licenses in 2008 at clearance prices to companies that he favoured. In his defense, Raja and the government have offered that he followed the procedures and policies introduced by his predecessors in the NDA in 2001.
The case in court is based on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The Supreme Court said today that prima facie, the allegations in the PIL seem to have merit. Among them – that companies who won telecom licenses were given huge loans by Public Sector Banks though it was clear they were ineligible. Telecom officials allegedly signed off on their loan applications in violation of financial protocol.
The court also relied heavily on the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which indicted Raja. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will work closely with the CBI to study any foreign exchange violations, as also how the funding of companies that won licenses. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will have to explain why it allowed ineligible companies to get licenses, and why some of them were not penalized for not meeting their end of the deal – rollout obligations.
The CBI should not be influenced by anyone, warned the court. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have to submit a status report at the next hearing on February 11.
The 2G scam has proved to be a many-headed monster for the government. Raja has repeatedly said that the Prime Minister’s Office was plugged in to the policies he followed and the decisions he took. The Supreme Court had questioned what appeared to be the silence and alleged inaction of the Prime Minister in deciding whether Raja should have been prosecuted while he was a minister. The court also suggested it would be inappropriate for the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) – PJ Thomas- as the country’s top watchdog for corruption to monitor the 2G scam since he is accused of corruption in a case in Kerala, and because while he worked in the Telecom Ministry, he defended various decisions taken by Raja. That led to Thomas recusing himself from the inquiry but gifted the Opposition a chance to amplify its charge that the government is tolerant of corruption.
In the last week, the homes and offices of Raja and his associates have been raided by the CBI. Yesterday, the CBI raided close to 30 places in Tamil Nadu, targeting the homes of several people who are closest to Raja’s party, the DMK. Most significantly, the CBI raided an NGO led by a Catholic Priest, Father Jegath Gasper, whose organization, Maiyam, enjoys the very public patronage of Kanimozhi, who is a Rajya Sabha MP and the daughter of DMK chief, M Karunanidhi.
After both sets of raids, the CBI said that it had recovered ‘incriminating documents” – however, critics point out that the raids took place nearly a year after the CBI filed its FIR, and that means that it’s unlikely that critical evidence can be recovered now.
Source:NDTV
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