Spectrum Scam CBI filed charges against Airtel, Vodafone, telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh Loss to Indian citizens 846 Crore

Spectrum Scam CBI filed charges against Airtel, Vodafone, telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh
Loss to Indian citizens 846 Crore

Spectrum Scam
Scam Happened in Year  2002
NDA Government

Friday –

CBI has filed an FIR against Shyamal Ghosh for entering into a criminal conspiracy with Bharti Airtel and Hutchison Max (now Vodafone India).

In Year 2002,  Bharti Airtel was named Bharti Cellular, Vodafone India was known as Hutchison Max and Vodafone Mobile was known as Sterling Cellular.

The Central Bureau of Investigation [ CBI ] filed a chargesheet against telecom firms
Bharti Airtel,
Vodafone India,
Vodafone Mobile,
And former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh,
Accusing them of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct in the allocation of additional spectrum in 2002

The chargesheet also alleges that then telecom minister, the late Pramod Mahajan, was part of the conspiracy, but has not listed him as an accused as it is not possible to take action against dead person.

No promoter of any telecom company has been named in the charge sheet.

The prosecutor told the court that the CBI had been unable to determine the names of the company representatives who were part of the alleged conspiracy.


The chargesheet is filed in the court of Special CBI judge O P Saini


CBI has charged all the accused under section 120-B of the IPC for criminal conspiracy and for crimes under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The CBI has alleged that the decision to allocate additional spectrum to mobile companies in 2002 was a conspiracy to benefit the telecom companies.

CBI  has pegged the loss to the Government at Rs 846 crore.

In 2002,  Pramod Mahajan and Telecom Ministry introduced new spectrum allocation rules based on subscriber-linked criteria.

The technical committee of the Department of Telecom had recommended allotting additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz only after the operators reached a subscriber base of 9 lakh, the requirement was reduced by the DoT to 4 lakh.

This gave undue advantage to various mobile companies and loss to the national exchequer.

Scam Happened in Year 2002   Why in Year 2002  No one detected this scam?

This scam came into public domain only because of Supreme Court of India.
SC ordered the CBI to investigate any possible irregularities in the granting of mobile permits from 2001 to 2007.

Justice Delayed Justice Denied


Reality views by sm –

Friday, December 21, 2012

Tags – 2G Spectrum Scam Airtel Vodafone