Former Telecom Minister A Raja’s private secretary R K Chandolia had threatened several senior Telecom Ministry officials to ensure grant of spectrum to Swan Telecom, which was ineligible for getting the spectrum licence, CBI said in its charge sheet on 2G scam.
The CBI probe revealed that the former Minister’s aide had pressurised senior ministry officials to allocate spectrum licence to Swan Telecom in preference to Tata Teleservices Ltd which, as per the DoT policy, was the preferred firm for allocation of spectrum in Delhi.
“Accused R K Chandolia, by abusing his official position as a public servant, pressurised and threatened R P Aggarwal, the Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing chief, to put up the file for allocation of spectrum to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd,” Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan noted in the CBI finding while according sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chandolia, an IES officer.
“It clearly shows his criminal conspiracy with A Raja in getting the spectrum allocated to Swan Telecom prior to Tata Teleservices Ltd, which did not get the spectrum in Delhi because available spectrum here was sufficient to cater to the requirement of only one licensee,” said Gopalan’s order dated April 1, 2011.
“Chandolia, in pursuance to the above criminal conspiracy, also played an active role in getting the GSM spectrum allocated to Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd in Delhi service area by WPC wing of the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) whereas as per the policy of DoT, the priority for allocation of spectrum in Delhi service area was Tata Teleservices Ltd, which was a dual technology licensee,” said Gopalan in his order agreeing with the findings of CBI probe.
The CBI, during its probe, has found that Chandolia often used to resort to strong arm tactics to pressurise senior ministry officials in carrying out the diktat of Raja. Gopalan’s order noted that Chandolia had devised an “unprecedented” methodology of setting up four counters in Sanchar Bhawan’s committee room on January 10, 2008 for grant of letters of intent to various applicant telecom firms.
The Economic Affairs Secretary noted that “this methodology also negated the “spirit of simultaneous and first-come-first-serve policy” for allocation of spectrum. For implementation of this unprecedented methodology, Chandolia had gone to Telecom Ministry’s Deputy Director-General (AS) A K Srivastava on January 10, 2008 morning.
