The Supreme Court on Wednesday took serious view of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) sending a communication to the CBI stating that there was virtually no loss in the sale of 2G spectrum while questioning the probe agency’s estimation of much lower loss to the exchequer when CAG had put it at whooping `1.74 lakh crores.
The CBI in its report to the trial court along with its chargesheet had estimated the loss to the exchequer around `30,000 crores, while Trai’s communication to the agency had said though it had no mechanism to estimate the exact loss in absence of market data of telecom companies, its report virtually had given an impression of no loss.
“CBI’s alleged estimated loss to the exchequer is much less than the CAG, which is being contested. We are really surprised over a communication of Trai. It is appointed as a (telecom) regulator by an Act of Parliament. It is an independent body and the communication is seriously debated. Everything should have been left for the (trial) court to decide. The system should be allowed to function properly,” SC’s 2G case monitoring bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly observed. “We have not made any observation (on loss so far) lest it should prejudice any party. But it (loss) should have not been taken so lightly,” the bench said when CBI counsel K.K. Venugopal tried to defend agency’s action not investigating the role of Mr Chidambaram in “fixing” the 2G price, saying that the CBI was an “independent statutory body” and should be allowed to function like that.
Sensing the tough stance of the court on the issue, CBI counsel merely said that the agency “has not accepted” the Trai report.
When he tried to cite the example of Taj corridor scam against Mayawati, in which the apex court had asked the agency to get its report vetted by CVC instead of passing by order for further investigation, the bench put a counter poser to the CBI lawyer whether the report in the 2G scam case was sent to the CVC.