In a new twist to the 2G scam, the Supreme Court on Wednesday took on record a communication sent by the finance ministry to the PMO in March 2011 stating that in January 2008 P. Chidam-baram, then finance minister, and A. Raja, communications minister, had decided not to “revisit” the spectrum price.
A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, now monitoring the probe into the 2G scam, allowed Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy to place the document on record along with the minutes of the January 30 meeting between Mr Chidambaram and Mr Raja, at which the decision to fix the spectrum price at the base `1,650 crore entry fee was taken. The top court had allowed Dr Swamy to place the crucial documents on record as part of his petition seeking a direction to the CBI to investigate Mr Chidamba-ram’s role in “fixing” the 2G price at a much lower level.
The March 25, 2011 note of the finance ministry under Mr Pranab Mukherjee to the PMO titled as “Chronology of basic facts related to pricing and allocation of 2G spectrum” said that “in a meeting held on January 30, 2008 between then ministers of finance and communications, it was noted by the then finance minister (P. Chidambaram) that he was for now not seeking to revisit the current regimes for entry fee or revenue share.”
The minutes of the January 30, 2008 meeting between Mr Chidambaram and Mr Raja were also annexed with the note signed by P.G.S. Rao, deputy director in the infrastructure and investment division of the finance ministry’s department of economic affairs, and addressed to Ms Vini Mahajan, joint secretary, PMO. Dr Swamy, who alleged that despite his sending several documents to the CBI showing the alleged “culpability” of Mr Chidambaram along with Mr Raja in fixing spectrum prices at a much lower level, the agency had not taken any action to investigate his role while Mr Raja has been chargesheeted for the same “offence”.