New Delhi, Nov. 27: As the Supreme Court persistently questioned the CBI for the manner in which it is pursuing the 2G spectrum scam case, particularly regarding the role of the former telecom minister, Mr A. Raja, it has come on record how the minister had snubbed the then telecom secretary and DoT’s member (finance) for raising objections on fixing spectrum price based on 2001 market value.
The minister had rebuked the two officers for raising the objections on the fixation of the price stating that they had no “knowledge” of the issue and they had not studied it properly.
The rude snub came in a note put up by Mr Raja in the file overruling their objections on fixing 2G spectrum price at `1,600 in January 2008 on the basis of 2001 market value.
Mr Raja’s note has been recorded in the CAG report, which the counsel for NGO Centre for PIL, Mr Prashant Bhushan, quoted word by word in the apex court during the hearing.
“They have no knowledge of the matter or had not studied the files properly. They have vested interest in it,” Mr Raja’s note said as read out by Mr Bhushan from the CAG report over which CBI counsel, Mr K.K. Venugopal, had raised serious objection.
Besides, the petitioner’s counsel pointed out from the CAG report that the meeting of telecom commission fixed for January 9, 2008, a day before the letter of intent (LoI) were issued to companies after depositing `1,600 as fee for spectrum licence, was suddenly deferred for January 15.