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2G spectrum scam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia To comply with Wikipedia's guidelines, the introduction of this article may need to be rewritten. Please discuss this issue on the talk page and read the layout guide to make sure the section will be inclusive of all essential details. (April 2011) This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (Consider using more specific cleanup instructions.) Please help improve this article if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (April 2011) The 2G spectrum scam in India involved the issue of 1232 licenses by the ruling Congress-led UPA alliance[1] of the 2G spectrum to 85 companies[1] including many new telecom companies with little or no experience in the telecom sector at a price set in the year 2001. The scam involved allegations regarding
the under pricing of the 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications which resulted in a heavy loss to the exchequer, and the illegal manipulation of the spectrum allocation process to favour select companies
The issue came to light after the auction of airwaves for 3G services which amounted to 67,719 crore (US$15.1 billion) to the exchequer.[2] A report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on the money collected from 3G licenses estimated that the loss to the exchequer due to under pricing of the 2G spectrum was 176,379 crore (US$39.33 billion).[3] The scam came to public notice when the Supreme Court of India took Subramaniam Swamy's complaints on record [With Case type:Writ Petition (Civil),Case No:10, Year:2011].[4]
Contents
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1.1 Politicians, Ministers and Parliamentarians accused 1.2 Bureaucrats accused 1.3 Corporations accused 1.4 Media persons and lobbyists accused 2 Politicians, Ministers and Parlimentarians accused 3 Pranab writes to PM 4 Petitioners to 2G scam 5 Loss to Exchequer 6 Relationship between media and government o 6.1 Ratan Tata petitions over leak 7 Response to scam 8 Arrests and Chargesheets 9 Public Accounts Committee (PAC) 10 Impact on stock markets 11 See also 12 References
o o o o
13 External links
Andimuthu Raja, Union Cabinet Minister for Communications and: The Comptroller and Auditor General holds Raja personally responsible for the sale of 2G spectrum at 2001 rates in 2008, resulting in the previously mentioned loss of up to Rs. 1.76 lakh crores (US$40 billion) to the national exchequer.[6] In August, 2010, evidence was submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) showing that Raja had personally signed and approved the majority of the questionable allocations.[7] M. K. Kanimozhi, Member of Rajya Sabha: On April 25, 2011 Kanimozhi was named as a co-conspirator in the supplementary chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the 2G spectrum case. The chargesheet submitted before the Supreme Court establishes how Rs 200 crore connected with the scam traveled from a partnership firm of businessman Shahid Balwa of Swan Telecom to the Karunanidhi family-owned Kalaignar TV.[5] She has been charged with section 7 and 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The sections deal with acceptance of alleged gratification.[8]
Siddhartha Behura, Civil Servant (IAS officer of 1973 batch UP cadre): He was the Telecom secretary who served in the DOT at the time of the 2G allocation. Pradip Baijal, Civil Servant (IAS officer of 1966 batch MP cadre): He is alleged to have recommended policies that favored certain Telecom companies when he was heading the TRAI. Post retirement, Baijal joined Noesis, a consulting firm.[9] [10] Raja has made references to Baijal's decisions in 2003 as the basis for his decisions in 2008; something which has been attacked by Arun Shourie and several media pundits. The houses and offices of the bureaucrat were visited by the Central Bureau of Investigation in December 2010 as part of their investigations.[11] However, Baijal is expected to get a clean chit in this issue.[12] R. K. Chandolia, Civil Servant (IES officer of 1984 batch cadre): He was private secretary of Raja during UPA-I when the licences were awarded. When Raja became the Telecom Minister once again in UPA-II, Chandolia had been promoted to the Joint Secretary rank. Raja re-designated him Economic Adviser, that gave him the charge of all important policy-related work. Chandolia interacted with all the licensees. It is said that it was Chandolia who, from DDGaccess services A K Srivastava's room, had handed out letters of intent to representatives of various companies.[13]
Aircel Airtel Allianz Infra[14] Dishnet Wireless Loop Mobile MTS India, formerly knowns as Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited Reliance Communications S Tel Swan Telecom Tata Tele Services Unitech Group Videocon Telecommunications Limited Virgin Mobile India Vodafone Essar
Nira Radia, a former airline entrepreneur turned corporate lobbyist whose conversations with politicians and corporate entities were recorded by the government authorities. The contents were later leaked by unknown parties creating the Nira Radia tapes controversy
Barkha Dutt, a journalist who works with NDTV also was involved in the lobbying of ministers in the government, but was not given any coverage or publicity in this matter by her fellow colleagues. Vir Sanghvi, a journalist who works with Hindustan Times was alleged to offer to stage a scripted and rehearsed interview with Niira Radia's client Mukesh Ambani.
Dayanidhi Maran, former Union Cabinet Minister for Textiles: The main allegation revealed by Tehelka magazine and followed up in several other reports, is that Maran forced C. Sivasankaran, owner of Aircel, to sell the telecom company to Maran's Malaysia-based friend T. Ananda Krishnan in 2006. The reports allege that Maran deliberately delayed issuing spectrum licenses to Aircel's sister concern, Dishnet Wireless, when it was owned by Sivasankaran. He issued the licenses soon after it changed hands to Ananda Krishnan who owns Maxis.[15] P. Chidambaram, current Union Cabinet Minister for Home Affairs : Subramaniam Swamy states that when the 2G Spectrum rate was finalised, P.Chidambaram was the finance minister of India and he had a major role in deciding the spectrum price with A.Raja. Subramaniam alleges that Chidambaram had received kickbacks and undervalued the spectrum cost.[16]
Subramaniam Swamy, activist lawyer and politician, whose letters to the Prime Minister demanding action and affidavits and cases in the Supreme Court brought the issue into the public limelight. Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a journalist who was one among the very first to write on the irregularities in the awarding of 2G spectrum allocation by the Telecom Ministry. He is also one of the petitioners in the 2G PIL currently being heard in the Supreme court.[18] Prashant Bhushan, on behalf of the Centre for Public Interest Litigation. Anil Kumar, on behalf of the civil society organisationTelecom Watchdog
Others:Several eminent people like former chief election commissioners J.M. Lyngdoh, T.S. Krishnamurthy and N. Gopalaswami and former central vigilance commissioner (CVC) P. Shankar are also petitioners in the suits filed by civil society groups.[14] so why the actions are not been taken yet.
The tapes leaked to the public include conversations between Nira Radia and Ratan Tata. Tata petitioned the government to acknowledge his right to privacy and demanded accountability for the leak, with the Minister for Home Affairs, CBI, Indian Income Tax Department, the Department of Telecommunication, and the Department of Information Technology as respondents in the petition.[24] On April 4, 2011 Indian Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC)questioned Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata and corporate lobbyist Niira Radia regarding their roles in 2G Scam.[25]
scam. The CBI has evidence from the Income Tax department that Shahid Usman Balwa, considered close to Raja, was instrumental in channelling the kickbacks allegedly received by the former telecom minister.[30] On March 29, 2011, in Delhi, the CBI arrested Asif Balwa (younger brother of the arrested former Managing Director of DB-Etisalat Group, Shahid Balwa) and Rajeev Agarwal for their alleged involvement in money transfer to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) Kalaignar TV channel.[31] On April 2, 2011, the CBDT filed its first 80,000 page chargesheet in the 2G spectrum scam before a Special Court in Delhi naming nine individuals and three companies. It said the wrongful acts of the accused deprived the government exchequer of possible revenues amounting to INR Rs 30,985 crore (USD $ 6,983,322,233). The accused include the following individuals:[32] 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Andimuthu Raja, former Telecom minister Siddharth Behura, former Telecom Secretary R.K. Chandolia, Raja's former personal secretary Shahid Usman Balwa, former Director of Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB) Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director of Unitech Ltd and Unitech Wireless Gautam Doshi, Group MD, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Hari Nair, Senior Vice-President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Surendra Pipara, Senior Vice-President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Reliance Telecom Ltd 9. Vinod Goenka, Director, Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB) The three companies named are: 1. Swan Telecom 2. Unitech Wireless 3. Reliance Telecom In the first chargesheet, the CBI had named lobbyist Niira Radia and 124 others as witnesses. On 25 April 2011, in its second chargesheet in the scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named five more accused individuals:[33] 1. Kanimozhi - Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (DMK) and daughter of Tamil Nadu ex-Chief Minister M Karunanidhi 2. Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV 3. Karim Morani of Cineyug Films 4. Asif Balwa of Kusegaon Realty 5. Rajiv B Agarwal of Kusegaon Realty
On 20 May 2011, Special CBI Judge O P Saini of the Delhi court ordered the arrest of DMK Member of Parliament Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar after rejecting their bail pleas in the 2G spectrum case.[34] Second charge sheet filed by CBI has drawn severe criticisms for its inability or lack of intent for nailing the accused. "Timid and short on detail, the CBI chargesheet serves more as a lesson for students of law and police academies on how not to make a chargesheet. For starters, the chargesheet goes out of its way to offer a clean chit to the Prime Minister (4 pages), the attorney general (2 pages) and the Tatas (7 pages). It appears the CBI believes its brief is to defend these three as the accused rather than focusing on its real job of detailing criminal conspiracy, delivering evidence on corruption and filing charges, without favour or prejudice, against those in the government and the private sector who cheated the exchequer. The CBI has further defied the Supreme Court Order of 16.12.2010 which instructed it to investigate spectrum auctions between 2001 and 2006 and the grant of UAS licences. The CBI has walked over that entire period as if nothing happened ignoring the Justice Shivraj Patil OMC Report and the multiple statements and evidence provided by the government about the illegal issuance of new UAS licences since 2004 in violation of TRAIs recommendations and the Cabinet decision of 2003. None of the companies that were found ineligible in the CAG Report (85 of them) except Unitech have been chargesheeted. After so long, only Unitechs 22 applications have been evaluated but not the other 63...The CBI has carefully picked on some junior company officials as the prime accused. " CBI failed to find any instance of corruption and any evidence for the same. It also took on the role of auditor and recalculated loss figure to 30984.55Cr (without providing details)[35]
diverse fields in connection with the 2G scam probe, Joshi said it was the duty of the PAC to "trace and examine the way the money of [the] common man is spent".[36] On April 30, the chairman submitted a draft report to the Lok Sabha Speaker (Meira Kumar), and insisted that it be tabled in the Parliament. United Progressive Alliance (UPA) members claimed that a majority (11) MPs of the committee had rejected the report. Joshi termed this rejection as unconstitutional, claiming that rejection is impossible until the report is read and discussed by committee members.[36] On May 2, the speaker reappointed Joshi as the chairman of the PAC (whose term ended on April 30), despite the ongoing controversy regarding the status of the draft report. Soon after, the report was returned by the speaker. On June 28 the UPA thwarted an attempt by Joshi to present the draft before the PAC. On August 6, Joshi made a fresh attempt to represent the draft.
2010 housing loan scam in India Adarsh Housing Society Scam Belekeri port scam Commonwealth games scam Corruption Perceptions Index Indian political scandals Jan Lokpal Bill Rent seeking List of politicians in India charged with corruption
[edit] References
1. ^ a b "Subramanian Swamy moves SC for cancellation of 2G spectrum licences". The TImes of India. 2010-05-19. Retrieved 2011-05-06. 2. ^ "3G spectrum auction: Government collects Rs67,719 crore booty". DNA. 2010-05-19. Retrieved 2011-05-06. 3. ^ "CPM demands A Raja's resignation". The Times of India. 2010-11-05. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
4. ^ "Case Number". Courtnic.nic.in. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 5. ^ a b "Accused have been booked under sections". The Hindustan Times. 2011-04-25. Retrieved 2011-04-25. 6. ^ Singh, Shalini (28 October 2009). "BJP takes on Raja over telecom spectrum scam". Times of India. Retrieved 2009-11-08. 7. ^ Joseph, Josy (August 30, 2010). "CAG draft report nails Raja role in 2G scam". The Times Of India. 8. ^ "DMK takes a hit, Kanimozhi charged and summoned". Hindustan Times. April 25, 2011. 9. ^ taratv.com 10. ^ "Taming the retired". The Hindu Business Line. 2010-12-17. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 11. ^ "CBI conducts raids; swoops on DMK associates, Niira Radia & Pradip Baijal". economictimes.indiatimes.com. 12. ^ "Relief for Baijal". ndtv.com. 13. ^ "Who is R K Chandolia?". Ndtv.com. 2011-02-02. Retrieved 2011-0211. 14. ^ a b "Government, 11 telecom firms get court notice on 2G spectrum". sify.com. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 15. ^ "Dayanidhi Maran: 2g Scam". timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 16. ^ "2G scam: Chidambaram as guilty as Raja, claims Subramanian Swamy". indiatoday.intoday.in. 17. ^ "Pranab writes to PM". indiatoday.intoday.in. 18. ^ "2G scam: Why I filed a PIL against the telecom minister - Rediff.com Business". Business.rediff.com. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 19. ^ "Performance Audit Report on the Issue of Licenses and Allocation of 2G Spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications, Chapter 5". Comptroller and Auditor General of India. 20. ^ a b "Offence as Defence". Frontline. 2011-01-07. 21. ^ a b "2G scam: No public loss to exchequer, says Kapil Sibal". MoneyControl.com. 2011-01-11. 22. ^ "Tenth Five Year Plan, 2002-2007". Planning Commission. 2002-12-21. 23. ^ a b Amol Sharma (1 Dec 2010). "Wait a Minute, What Exactly Is Barkha Dutt Accused of?". IndiaRealTime. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 December 2010. 24. ^ "Government orders probe into leaking of Niira Radia tapes". The Economic Times. 29 Nov 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2010. 25. ^ "PAC Quizzes Niira Radia, Rattan Tata in 2G Scam Probe". abclive.in. 26. ^ a b Joji Thomas Philip (18 Nov 2010). "2G scam: Govt to pull up five telcos". The Economic Times. The Times Group. 27. ^ "2G spectrum scam: CBI raids residences of A Raja - The Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2010-12-08. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 28. ^ "CBI arrests ex-telecoms min A.Raja over graft". Reuters India. 2 February 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
29. ^ PTI, Feb 2, 2011, 07.41pm IST (2011-02-02). "2G spectrum scam: Former telecom minister A Raja arrested - The Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 30. ^ "CBI arrests DB group MD Shahid Balwa in 2G scam". Hindustan Times. 9 February 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2011. 31. ^ "CBI arrests Balwa's brother and another". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 30 March 2011. 32. ^ "CBI charges Raja, 8 others and 3 companies in 2G case". The Hindu Business Line. 2 April 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2011. 33. ^ "Kanimozhi charged with conspiracy in 2G scam by CBI". The Economic Times. 25 April 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2011. 34. ^ "2G scam: Kanimozhi in Tihar Jail after court rejects bail plea". The Indian Express. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011. 35. ^ "CBIs 2G chargesheet explains why Anna Hazare is on fast unto death". The Times of India. 07 April 2011. Retrieved 08 Sept 2011. 36. ^ a b "2G report's 'rejection' unconstitutional: Joshi" (in English). Rediff News. 2011-04-30. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 37. ^ "When DB Realty ended up dialling the wrong no - Money - DNA". Dnaindia.com. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 38. ^ "2G scam: The DB Realty-DMK puzzle - Rediff.com Business". Rediff.com. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 39. ^ ET Bureau (February 10, 2011). "Arrest of Balwa may trip DB Realty's rapid rise". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 40. ^ "Day after DB Realty chiefs arrest, ADAG scrips tank". Indianexpress.com. 2010-11-05. Retrieved 2011-02-11. 41. ^ Chowdhury, Anirban. "SpiceJet Denies Maran Buy Under Investigation - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2011-02-11.
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