With the March, 2011 Finance Ministry note on the allocation and pricing of 2G spectrum continuing to muddy the political waters here, highly placed sources in the Central Bureau of Investigation said Home Minister P. Chidambaram — who was at the helm of affairs of the Finance Ministry when the controversial spectrum sale by the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, took place in 2008 — was “not part of the conspiracy.”
The note broadly suggests that the scam could have been averted had Mr. Chidambaram insisted on the auctioning of spectrum instead of selling it on a first-come, first-served (FCFS) basis.
The sources pointed to the statement, recorded by the CBI, of the then Finance Secretary and present Reserve Bank of India Governor, D. Subbarao, which emphasised that the Finance Ministry had always favoured auctioning of the 2G spectrum, but it was the Department of Telecommunications that was adamant about the FCFS policy.
The sources explained that the note was only a “recapitulation” of the sequence of events and did not reveal anything “new.” The agency had examined files and documents preceding the note. “We are looking into criminal misconduct and not questioning the policy decisions of the government,” the sources said. In the same vein, the former Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, was also formally asked about the policy of the then National Democratic Alliance government. “His views were ascertained in a formal manner, there was no accusatory tone in it,” the sources added.
The sources said the CBI did not have any objection to the progress in the 2G spectrum allocation case being monitored by the Supreme Court, but was opposed to any “outside” monitoring by a Special Investigation Team or any other body.
While looking into the 2001-2007 period, the CBI has also examined the role of the late Pramod Mahajan and Arun Shourie, who were Telecom Ministers during the NDA regime, and found “nothing” against them, the sources said.
On the Dayanidhi Maran-Aircel case, the sources said Mr. Maran's tenure from 2004 to 2007 as Telecom Minister was scrutinised. “Our investigation into this preliminary enquiry [PE] is complete, and we are in the final stages of wrapping it up,” the sources said, indicating that the PE could soon be converted into a full-fledged First Information Report, spelling more trouble for Mr. Maran.
On the Loop-Essar links, the sources said investigations to find out whether Loop happened to be a front company of Essar were over, but a final view was yet to be taken.
