Siddhartha Behura: Was secretary, DoT from January 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009. It was Behura who signed the files which led to the allocation of 122 2G licences. Behura had earlier told FE that he merely implemented a decision taken by Raja before his taking over as the DoT secretary so he had no choice. Behura?s predecessor, DS Mathur, had refused to sign the files, thus delaying the grant of licences. Mathur subsequently retired on December 31, 2007.
RK Chandolia: A 1984 batch Indian Economic Service officer and Raja?s private secretary during his reign in UPA-I, when the licences were given. When Raja became telecom minister once again in UPA-II, Chandolia had been promoted to the joint secretary rank and could not serve as the minister?s PS technically. Raja re-designated him as the economic advisor, giving him charge of all important policy work where he was reporting directly to the DoT secretary. Chandolia interacted with all the licensees. It is said it was he who had handed out the LoIs to the companies concerned sitting in DDG-access services AK Srivastava?s room.
AK Srivastava: An Indian Telecommunications Service officer served as DDG-access services. This division is one of the most important as it deals with all matters relating to licensing and rollout of services. If Srivastava had refused to play ball, Raja and Chandolia would not have been able to award the licences. Checking the eligibility of the companies was also his job where he failed as 85 out of the 122 licences were given to companies who did not meet the criteria.
K Sridharan: Served as member-technology in the Telecom Commission, which is the apex policy-making body of the DoT. When Mathur refused to cooperate and also refused to advance the cut-off date for accepting the applications to September 25, 2007 instead of the earlier date of October 1, 2007, Sridharan obliged Raja. In November 2007, when Mathur was abroad for a few days on an official assignment, Sridharan as the senior-most member of the Commission signed the file relating to advancing the cut-off date.