Author: Raman Kirpal
Publication: Firstpost.com
Date: July 13, 2012
URL: http://www.firstpost.com/business/cbi-gives-clean-chit-to-arun-shourie-in-2g-scam-376546.html

“Is Shaadi mein hum ladke wale hain,’’ (We represent the bridegroom’s side in this marriage), said former Communications Minister and noted journalist Arun Shourie on 25 February 2012, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had questioned him in 2G scam case.

Arun Shourie was right! The CBI has now given him a clean chit and has urged the Supreme Court to allow them to close the preliminary enquiry (PE) against him in the 2G Spectrum case, as there is no prima facie evidence against him.

In a status report submitted just before the Supreme Court went on its mid-year vacation in the last week of May, the CBI said that they could find only one irregularity during Arun Shourie’s stint as minister between January 2003 and May 2004 during the NDA regime.

“But there was no criminal or malafide intention in the said irregularity,’’ the CBI said. The CBI has sent a separate report to the ministry of communication and information technology to take appropriate action in regard to the said irregularity.

The alleged irregularity was about the migration of basic mobile licence and CDMA licence holders to the unified licensing regime. Pradeep Baijal, the then Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), tweaked Trai recommendations on the multi-stage bidding process for new entrants to the unified telecom licences regime.

Baijal, a 1966 batch IAS officer, had retired in 2008. He had joined Niira Radia’s firm Vaishnavi Communications in 2009. The CBI had raided his house during the preliminary enquiry. The agency now says it was only an irregularity without any malafide intent and thus he is only liable for departmental action.

In Arun Shourie’s case, the CBI said he had obtained a letter from Baijal before he distributed spectrum to existing and new telecom players. He strictly followed rules and distributed about 50 licences without any delays.

“Unlike his successors Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja, Shourie used to clear the issuance of spectrum under the unified licence regime within 30 days of receiving an application, as prescribed by the rules,’’ a senior CBI official told Firstpost.

The CBI’s status report says that Arun Shourie had also tried to auction spectrum despite the first-cum-first-served (FCFS) policy to explore revenue generation, but there were not many takers for spectrum at that time. This is when Arun Shourie distributed spectrum on FCFS basis in areas like the North-East, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, where the people were eagerly waiting for mobile services.

“Unlike Dayanidhi Maran and A Raja, Arun Shourie did not focus on metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi, which were already ably served in terms of mobile facilities, and these areas were always up for grabs. Shourie tried to push mobile services to areas like the North East and Jammu and Kashmir, where it was needed the most,’’ the official said.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has also submitted its report, or advice, on the basis of the CBI’s status report to the Supreme Court. CVC is also said to have endorsed the CBI’s recommendations and suggested a closure of the enquiry against Arun Shourie in the 2G scam.

The Supreme Court is likely to take up the matter on 19 July.

Arun Shourie is the first telecom minister to be exonerated in the 2G spectrum case. Initially, only A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran were subjected to investigation in this case, but the Congress-led UPA government insisted on including the telecom regimes of Arun Shourie and Pramod Mahajan and recommended a CBI enquiry into the distribution of spectrum between 2001 and 2008.

Pramod Mahajan is no more, but the CBI had registered an FIR in cases involving Pramod Mahajan and Maran on finding prima facie evidence against them. The investigation is in the final stages and the CBI is likely to file its chargesheet against Shyamal Dutta in the Pramod Mahajan’s case.

The ‘formal’ CBI request for closure of the enquiry against Arun Shourie has again put the UPA government and the PM’s Office in a spot. “It is a red herring to divert media attention from Manmohan Singh and Karunanidhi,’’ Shourie had said then, when the UPA government had insisted on putting put Shourie’s role under scanner.