Will probe bank loans against 2G licences: CBI to SC

Source :CNBC-TV18:Friday, January 28, 02:30 pM

In a long overdue step, the CBI today raided the houses of Former Telecom Minister A Raja and seven of his key aides in connection with the 2G spectrum scam. Raids were conducted in 14 places in Delhi and Tamil Nadu. A CBI spokesperson said that search operations began at 6 am and 14 places have been searched so far.

Meanwhile, CBI’s Deputy Inspector General and Spokesperson Vineeta Thakur said that the searches have led to the recovery of incriminating documents.

Thakur said, "The CBI has today conducted searches of residential and official premises of the then Union Minister of Communications and IT. The then PS to Minister of Communication and IT, the then secretary, Department of Telecommunication, the then Additional Secretary, Member Telecom Commission, Department of Telecommunication, Deputy Director General, Access Service Wing, Department of Telecommunication and MD of a Chennai based export firm in connection with investigation in a case registered in connection with irregularities in the allotment of unified access services licenses. The searches started early in the morning and till now 14 places have been searched."

The Supreme Court today said that the ambit of investigations by the CBI into the 2G spectrum allocation scam needs to be widened. The court wants the CBI to investigate the events of 2001 when the NDA government introduced the controversial first-come-first-served policy for spectrum allocation.

Below is a verbatim transcript of CNBC-TV18's Ashok Bagariya's comments. Also watch the accompanying video.

The Supreme Court concluded its hearing in the 2G spectrum scam case and reserved its verdict. Secondly, and the most important thing that happened today was the Supreme Court turned the spotlight on the role of public sector banks on extending of loans to the companies that had got 2G licences. In fact the Supreme Court made very adverse and critical comments against banks saying that they had mortgaged the licences at very high prices.

The Supreme Court went on to say that one particular bank, State Bank of India, had extended a loan of Rs 10,000 crore to a company and that is one dimension which also needs to be looked into. To which, the CBI replied that they would forward this matter to the banking and frauds cell of the CBI which will look into it, and give the preliminary report to the Supreme Court as soon as possible.

But besides that, the enforcement directorate also submitted a status report to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope. But the most important thing that really came was the ED telling the Supreme Court that as far as the 2G spectrum scam was concerned, the money had come in from 10 different countries and money also had gone from India to 10 different countries. So that was one aspect the ED was looking into.

And lastly and more importantly was the political aspect of this whole thing that the opposition which has been demanding a joint parliamentary probe into this whole telecom scam was caught in the crosswire today when the Supreme Court said that even the 2001 policy of the NDA government and the licences issued by the then NDA government needs to be probed. In fact the court directed the CBI that this whole policy when it started in 2001 should be the scam, should be investigated from that time and date.