New Delhi: Former Telecom Minister A Raja Wednesday told a Delhi court that he had "apprised" the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about various telecom related issues, including allocation of 2G spectrum, after holding a meeting with Pranab Mukherjee, who was External Affairs Minister and then Solicitor General G E Vahanvati.
Defending himself in the ongoing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation case, Raja, one of the accused, said that in December 2007, he and Vahanvati had gone to meet Mukherjee and an "extensive discussion" took place between them on various telecom related issues.
"Soon after the meeting (with Mukherjee and SG), I met the Prime Minister and apprised him of the happenings and outcome of the aforesaid meeting and I promised and undertook to give a detailed note in this regard," Raja told Special CBI Judge O P Saini.
"Accordingly, I sent a detailed letter containing issue based description to the Prime Minister on December 26, 2007," he said.
Raja had yesterday told the court that the then PM had asked him to have discussion with Mukherjee, who was heading the empowered group of ministers on vacation of spectrum, on issues related to telecom matters.
Regarding the meeting with Mukherjee and the then SG, Raja said that "an extensive discussion took place between Minister for External Affairs, SG and myself, issue-wise, as mentioned in the brief, namely, subscriber based criteria for allotment of spectrum, dual technology, new UASL applications for issuance of new licences and allocation of spectrum."
"At the end of the meeting, Minister for External Affairs shared with me that he was going to give a separate note to the Prime Minister in this regard and further directed me to apprise the Prime Minister separately," Raja, whose deposition will continue tomorrow, said.
Raja had yesterday told the court that the then PM and Cabinet members were "completely under confusion" created by "vested interests" about policy and procedure of Department of Telecommunication (DoT) regarding allocation of 2G spectrum.
Raja is facing trial in the case along with former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, DMK MP Kanimozhi, Raja's former private secretary R K Chandolia, Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra, Reliance ADAG executives Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair.
Besides them, Bollywood producer Karim Morani, Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar and Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt Ltd, Asif Balwa and Rajiv Agarwal, are also facing trial in the case.
Besides these 14 accused, three telecom firms Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd are also accused in the case.
The court had on October 22, 2011 framed charges against them under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, faking documents, abusing official position, criminal misconduct by public servant and taking bribe.
The offences entail punishment ranging from six months in jail to life imprisonment.
