03 February 2011

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Timeline of the 2G Spectrum Scam –

Timeline of the 2G Spectrum Scam –

Updated on Thursday, March 03, 2011 –

Year 2007 –
A Raja becomes Telecom Minister
Raja sales the Spectrum at 2001 Rates.
Will you sale your apartment or land at the Rate of year 2001?
Will you not try to get the maximum price for your apartment or land or flat?


September 25, 2007:
Raja arbitrarily changes cut-off date for receiving spectrum applications

November 2, 2007:
Policy of Raja – First Cum First basis

Jan 10, 2008:
Pan-India licence fee fixed at 2001 rate of Rs. 1,658 crore

November 2008:
Left demands probe, alleges loss of Rs. 60,000 crore

October 22, 2009:
CBI registers FIR against unnamed DoT official and private firms for criminal conspiracy and loss to exchequer

September 13, 2010:
Supreme Court issues notice to then Telecom Minister A Raja and the Centre on alleged irregularities in allocation of the 2G spectrum and asks for response on a petition seeking the court to monitor an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into irregularities in sale of licenses.
The bench also issues notices to the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department on the petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), an NGO, and others.
The petitioners challenge the May 25 decision of the Delhi High Court dismissing its plea to monitor the CBI probe into the alleged role of the Union Communications Minister in the sale of 2G spectrum licenses in 2008.

October 28, 2010:
Raja refuses to resign from the Cabinet. Raja says he will not resign over the spectrum controversy as he followed his predecessors and decisions were taken in consultation with the Prime Minister and the approval of the Solicitor-General.

2010:
3G auctions yield around Rs. 70,000 crore

November 16, 2010:
CAG estimates loss between Rs. 70,000 crore and Rs. 1.76 lakh crore
The CAG report on 2G spectrum scam tabled in Parliament

December 7, 2010:
CBI raids Raja and his aides.


February 2: The CBI arrests Raja, Chandolia and Behura.

Updated on Thursday, February 03, 2011 -

The Patiala House Court granted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) a five-day remand of former telecom minister A Raja, his personal secretary RK Chandolia and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behuria.

CBI lawyer told the court that, Swan and Unitech were favored and how the two companies made a huge profit by selling their stakes to other companies at high prices
It caused the loss to the government of India.

Unitech brought the licenses of 22 circles for Rs 1658 crore and it sold 67 per cent of the equity to Telenor for Rs 6100 crore.

Swan bought the licences of 13 circles for Rs 1537 crore and sold 45 per cent of equity to Etisalat for Rs 4200 crore.

The CBI today accused former Telecom Minister A Raja of causing a loss of Rs. 22,000 crore to the exchequer by favoring some telecom firms in award of the 2G spectrum licences and demanded his custody for five days, which a city court granted.

Special judge granted the CBI the custody of the trio after allowing Raja's counsel 10-minute private conversation with the former minister.

Updated on - Wednesday, February 09, 2011

DB Realty's promoter Shahid Usman Balwa was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on for his alleged role in the 2 G scam.
This is the fourth arrest in the 2G spectrum scam
After getting license, he sold 45 per cent stake in Swan Telecom to the UAE-based Etisalat in 2009
He will be produced in court on Wednesday and CBI will seek his remand.

Updated on Friday, February 11, 2011

Raja, Balwa sent to CBI custody till Feb 14

2 G - Scam – DMK and Karunanidhi –

Reports have suggested that the kickbacks paid to Mr. Raja were routed into a TV channel owned by the first family of the DMK.

The CBI believes that a 200-crore cheque, which was a kickback in the 2G scam, was paid in 2009 to Kalaignar TV, owned by M Karunanidhi's family.
His wife, MK Dayaluammal, owns 60 percent of Kalaignar TV; his daughter, Kanimozhi, owns another 20 percent.

The bribe was allegedly being paid by Shahid Balwa, a promoter of DB Realty and Swan Telecom, which was allegedly one of the two major beneficiaries of Mr. Raja's spectrum largesse when he was minister.
Swan Telecom was granted its license for a little over 1500 crores and sold stake to Etisalat, a Dubai-based firm for nearly 4,200 crores.

Along with Mr. Balwa's Swan Telecom, real estate company Unitech has been shortlisted by the CBI as one of Mr. Raja's partners in crime.


A bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly asked the agency to lay its hand on the big corporate houses and the government officials who may have a role in the scam "as mere summoning them for examining them may not be sufficient".

The Supreme Court, monitoring the probe into the 2G scam told the CBI to go after the corporates, which are the beneficiaries of the scam.
the court said, "We have large number of persons who think themselves to be the law. Merely their being in the list of Forbes list of millionaires doesn't make a difference."

The Supreme Court wanted to take the 2G scam probe beyond Raja - to the big league of telecom companies, which the CAG says benefitted from the license bids.

The court asked CBI to inform them as to what they are doing regarding the beneficiary companies who have benefited from the scam," said senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

According to the CAG report, already tabled in Parliament, has mentioned that Reliance Telecom, an ADAG group company was one of the beneficiaries of the 2G rollout.
In its report, the CAG had clearly named ADAG group company Reliance Telecom Limited for violating the law.

The Supreme Court asked the government to constitute a special court to exclusively deal with the 2G spectrum scam that has caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore (Rs 1.76 trillion) to the exchequer.

The Supreme Court asked the CBI to reveal who the conspirators in the scam are and place the chargesheet before it ahead of filing it before the special court.

The Supreme Court also directed that no other court will pass any order in connection with the 2G spectrum case as may impede investigation.

CBI said that it will complete the investigation into the spectrum allocation between 2001 and 2006 by May 31, by which time it will also file the first charge sheet in the case.

In this case now it is expected that CBI will pay attention towards Unitech.

In its FIR CBI has mentioned that ,

Swan was allotted UAS licences for 13 circles for Rs 1,537 crore (Rs 15.37 billion) and it sold 45 per cent of shares before roll-out to UAE-based Etislat for Rs 4,200 crore (Rs 42 billion)

"M/s Unitech was allotted UAS licenses for 22 circles for Rs 1,658 crore (Rs 16.58 billion).
It offloaded its 60 per cent of shares in the licenses to Telenor of Norway for Rs 6,100 crore (Rs 61 billion) even before the rollout," the FIR said.

The charges against Unitech, according to the CBI's FIR, was that it offloaded 60 per cent of its shares to Telenor, a Norway-based telecom company and earned a profit of 267 per cent even before the roll out.

The CBI and Enforcement Directorate investigations have estimated that former telecom minister A Raja could have got bribes to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore, and have put the loss to the exchequer due to selling of spectrum at undervalued rates at Rs 40,000-50,000 crore.
The companies that have been accused of collusion with Raja include Swan, Unitech, Videocon, S-Tel and Aircel.

Updated on Saturday, February 12, 2011

CNN-IBN has accessed Balwa's letter to the CBI written on December 22, 2010 in which
DB Realty Managing Director Shahid Usman Balwa that Reliance Telecom had invested in his company.
Balwa also acknowledges that ADAG helped him set up business to apply for 2G spectrum licenses.
Balwa's letter to the CBI also mentions that ADAG officers were on his board, and ADAG brought preferential shares in his company to provide him with initial capital.
Balwa further told the CBI that ADAG sold off its stake to a Mauritius-based company.
CNNIBN Reported that CBI is investigating if former telecom minister A Raja's bribe money was channeled through a Mauritius-based company.

Update – Thursday, February 17, 2011-

Judicial Custody for A Raja until March 3 will be sent to Tihar Jail.
Court Gave the Judicial Custody of A. Raja will be sent to Tihar Jail.
A Raja will stay in jail up to 3 March.

Updated on Friday, February 18, 2011-

DB Realty is owned by Shahid Balwa who has a stake in Swan Telecom which is one of the companies named in the 2G scam.

Money was loaned to DMK's Kalaignar TV by DB Realty group through a maze of transactions.
Karunanidhi's wife MK Dayalu owns 60 percent and daughter Kanimozhi owns another 20 percent in the DMK TV channel.

Rs 214.84 crore is reflected in Kalaignar TV's balance sheet as an unsecured loan. It comes from Cineyug Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd
It is given to Kalaignar TV as an unsecured loan in the company's balance sheet for the year 2009-2010.
The CBI on Friday raided, carried out searches at Kalaignar TV Managing director Sharad Kumar's residence.

CBI sources allege that the DB Group first transferred the money to Morani Brothers' owned event management company Cineyug Films, which then forwarded it to Kalaignar.

The CBI had told a court recently, "It has also come to light that there was a transaction of Rs. 214 crore from M/s Cineyug Films private limited to Kalaignar TV in 2009.

"The funds were arranged by M/s Cineyug Films from DB Group companies wherein the family members of Balwa are the directors or shareholders", CBI had said in its application filed before the court.

Updated on Thursday, March 03, 2011 –

The Supreme Court today ordered the CBI to probe the restoration of 2G spectrum license to Chennai-based telecom operator S-Tel after its cancellation earlier on grounds of threat to national security.
The apex court also asked the agency to investigate the antecedents of the UAE-based Etisalat
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A G Ganguly asked the CBI to apprise it of their findings on March 15.
The apex court had detected yesterday the cancellation and subsequent restoration of 2G spectrum license to S-Tel, while examining a relevant government file on the matter.
The file was placed before the bench on its direction after it was alleged by the petitioners, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) that the Centre had adopted "arm- twisting" policy against the company for challenging Dot’s policy in 2G spectrum allocation in the court.


Reality Views by sm –
Thursday, February 03, 2011