NEW DELHI: Former Telecom Minister A Raja today told a special court that he had never misled then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on any issues relating to procedures to be followed for allocation of 2G spectrum allocation.
Opposing CBI’s allegation that he had misled Singh on 2G spectrum issues, Raja said that he had delivered whatever he had conveyed to the then PM in his letters addressed to him in November 2007.
“I was not misleading the then Prime Minister in my letters when I said adequate spectrum will be available to accommodate the applicants who had applied till September 25, 2007. Whatever I told the PM, I delivered that within a year. This shows I was not lying to him,” Raja’s counsel Manu Sharma told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.
During the final arguments in the case, Sharma alleged that it was the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) which had written to the Prime Minister that there was no adequate available spectrum.
“COAI goes and tells the Prime Minister that there was no adequate spectrum. This was a last ditch effort by COAI to stall entire proceedings in Department of Telecommunications (DoT) regarding allocation of spectrum,” he said.
Raja’s counsel also dealt with CBI’s allegation that the then telecom minister had unilaterally advanced the cut-off date to September 25, 2007, for receiving applications seeking 2G spectrum allocation to favour Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd (STPL) and Unitech.(agencies)
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