The former Telecom Minister, Arun Shourie, appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation here on Friday in connection with the probe into the 2G spectrum scam.
Maran’s tenure
After a three-hour session at the CBI headquarters, he told journalists that he cited several instances of alleged irregularities during the tenure of his successor Dayanidhi Maran, before A. Raja was made Telecom Minister.
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Mr. Shourie was the Minister in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government from January 2003 to May 2004,
“Mr. Maran was the Minister. What is A. Raja being accused of? Giving these 122 licences without spectrum, when there is no spectrum with the government? But it was in Mr. Maran's time that one sentence was put into the guidelines that there shall be no cap on the number of operators in a circle,” he said.
Such a change, he argued, could only come in the form of a recommendation from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
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As for Mr. Raja, now lodged in the Tihar jail here, he said: “Mr. Raja should become an approver and spill the beans. He did not follow the rules, and the main question remains: ‘who took the money, which were all telecom companies favoured, and who are the officers involved in this scam?'”