Even as it acquitted the 19 accused in the 2G spectrum sale scam, the CBI Special Court also underlined how it was senior functionaries of Manmohan Singh’s Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and not then Telecom Minister A Raja, who had misled Singh.
Special Judge OP Saini punctured holes in the CBI’s submission and answered the question when he shifted the blame squarely on to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), specifically Principal Secretaries Pulok Chatterjee and TKA Nair.
“It was not Sh A Raja, but Sh Pulok Chatterjee, in consultation with Sh TKA Nair, as he had suppressed the most relevant and controversial part of the letter of Sh A Raja from the then Hon’ble Prime Minister,” Saini has recorded.
The court also highlighted the breakdown of the communication between key government functionaries and departments. The trial court observed that Chatterjee and Nair failed to submit the complete picture to Singh. The court also recorded that Chatterjee had “became wiser and rectified his mistake and placed the correct facts before the then Hon’ble Prime Minister, but by that time it was too late.”
The court also noted that Raja, in a five-page letter, had laid out the facts of the matter and had clearly recorded that after due consideration, TRAI and Telecom Commission had advised against auctioning the spectrum.
In an indictment of Chatterjee and Nair for confusing matters thereon and accused them of giving the then prime minister a “partial view” of matter and “ignoring the most important and controversial issue of new licences.” He further noted: “This note did not consider at all the issue of new licences, which were to be issued as per the changed criteria from date of application to date of payment and was also the most controversial one.”
“Sh Pulok Chatterjee ought to have taken note of these facts in his earlier note dated 06.01.2008 itself, but he did not do so for the reasons best known to him and placed only a partial view before the then Hon’ble Prime Minister regarding spectrum related issues,” the court notes in another page.
“Thus, the record shows that the facts were misrepresented to the then Hon’ble Prime Minister by the officials of the PMO and not by Sh A Raja,” the judgment reads.
