‘2 DoT men opposed Raja, got transferred’

The CBI’s probe into the spectrum scam has established that former telecom minister A Raja, his personal secretary RKChandolia and former telecom secretary Sidharth Behura had transferred two senior officials of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to facilitate spectrum allocation to Swan Telecom in Delhi.

The CBI’s probe into the spectrum scam has established that former telecom minister A Raja, his personal secretary RK
Chandolia and former telecom secretary Sidharth Behura had transferred two senior officials of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to facilitate spectrum allocation to Swan Telecom in Delhi.

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According to the chargesheet in the case, a day after transferring the two officials, the accused allegedly forced the then
wireless advisor of DoT to put up a note that facilitated the spectrum’s allocation to Swan Telecom in Delhi on August 26, 2008.

The two officials were part of the DoT’s Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) wing, tasked with allocating spectrum
across 23 circles, including 14 circles, where scant spectrum was available in the face of multiple seekers, said a CBI
source.

“The 14 circles included Delhi where due to insufficient spectrum, only one applicant could have been accommodated. As part
of a conspiracy, through arbitrary methods, Raja, Behura and Chandolia made sure that spectrum went to Swan Telecom in
Delhi while unreasonably depriving Tata Tele Services and Spice Telecom,” he said.

According to the chargesheet, the two WPC officials were being “persistently pestered by all accused public servants” to
process applications in these circles, especially Delhi, in the order of their applications for spectrum were received in
WPC, while treating the date of TTSL as March 5, 2008 and not January 10, 2008.

The chargesheet added that when the file for spectrum’s allocation in Delhi circles was not processed in this manner,
Behura and Chandolia “caused the transfer” of the two officials.