The CBI has alleged that former disgraced telecom minister A Raja misled the Prime Minister and suppressed facts from him on the spectrum allocation issue.

According to the chargesheet, Raja on November 2, 2007, had written a letter to the PM ?misrepresenting facts and fraudulently justifying? his decision regarding the cut-off date of September 25, 2007 for applications for the UAS license on the ground that the announcement of this cut-off date appeared in newspapers.

He also misled the PM by saying that the opinion of the law ministry to refer the matter of deciding upon the procedure to allocate license and spectrum to an empowered group of ministers was out of context

But the CBI investigations revealed that the former minister was already in criminal conspiracy with other co-accused ? Unitech managing director Sanjay Chandra and Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka of Swan Telecom before the publication of cut-off date in newspapers.

The chargesheet also said that the PM had sent him a letter on the same day. It said that while the PM’s communication was in transit, Raja wrote the second letter in the night in collaboration with R K Chandolia without either referring it to DoT or dealing with it in the files, yet assuring the PM that ?there was and is, no single deviation or departure in the rules and procedures contemplated in all the decisions taken by my ministry and as such full transparency is being maintained by my ministry and further assure you that the same in future also.?

The CBI also referred to the PM’s letter on the same day to Raja that ?since spectrum is very limited even in the next several years, all the licences may never be able to get spectrum?, to show that the PM cautioned Raja but Raja brushed aside his advice. However, the CBI said that the important matter relating to the policy decisions of DoT, which required a serious consideration, was not dealt with in the files of the department and was decided by the accused persons in furtherance of their conspiracy with private persons and companies.

?Adherence to these directions would have foiled (Raja’s) designs to unduly favor applicant companies he was in conspiracy with,? the agency added.

The witness list

* Goolam E. Vahanvati,

attorney-general of India.

* R Gopalan,

secretary (economic affairs) in the

ministry of Finance

* D Subba Rao,

RBI Governor and former secretary

in the ministry of finance

* TK Viswanathan,

former secretary, ministry of

law and justice

* Henry Richard,

registrar of companies

* Niira Radia,

owner of Vaishnavi Corp Communications

* A N Sethuraman,

Reliance ADAG Group president

* Manju Madhavan,

former member (finance),

telecom commission,

* Avadesh Kumar Srivastava,

deputy director general

(access services), DoT

* Nitin Jain,

deputy director general

(data services), DoT

* Rajesh Kumar Gupta,

director, DoT

* Ram Jee Singh Kushvaha,

joint wireless adviser, DoT

* T K Varada Krishnan,

joint wireless adviser, DoT

* Abhay Shanker Verma

former director, DoT

* Sukhbir Singh,

directorvigilance

* K Sridhara,

former member (technology),

telecom commission

* R P Agarwal,

former wireless advisor, DoT