‘A Raja made Rs 3,000cr in bribes’ – CBI

‘A Raja made Rs 3,000cr in bribes’
Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN

NEW DELHI: The CBI and Enforcement Directorate investigations have estimated that former telecom minister A Raja could have got bribes to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore, and have put the loss to the exchequer due to selling of spectrum at undervalued rates at Rs 40,000-50,000 crore.

The two agencies have linked bribes Raja allegedly got to his order on January 2008 bringing forward the cut-off date for applications for spectrum from the initial October 21, 2007 to September 25, 2007. The deadline switch eliminated many applications, enabling Raja to favour a few with spectrum. In the process, he allegedly became richer by some Rs 3,000 crore.

These are initial estimates of Raja’s alleged new-found wealth as well as the loss to the exchequer and are not part of the progress report submitted by the CBI and ED to the Supreme Court on Thursday.

In their report, the two agencies said some companies who got the licences had got drafts for licence fees ready even before the revised cut-off date of September 25, 2007, implying they were aware of the plan to change the deadline. The companies that have been accused of collusion with Raja include Swan, Unitech, Videocon, S-Tel and Aircel.

The new licencees got huge foreign investments. One of them brought in share capital worth S$625 million. CBI counsel K K Venugopal told the court the licencees attracted investments in US, Japanese, and Mauritian currency.

Read more: ‘A Raja made Rs 3,000cr in bribes’ – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-Raja-made-Rs-3000cr-in-bribes/articleshow/7471835.cms#ixzz1DvtrWZxu

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