New Delhi, April 02: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will on Saturday file its first chargesheet in the 2G spectrum scam. The chargesheet will be filed in the special court of Justice OP Saini.
Highly placed sources informed that besides those arrested in the case including former telecom minister A Raja, his personal aide RK Chandolia, former telecom secretary Siddartha Behura, former managing director of Etislat DB (earlier Swan Telecom) Shahid Usman Balwa, a name of an MP may be mentioned in the chargesheet.
The names of a couple of real estate companies will also feature in the chargesheet, sources said.
The name of a big industrial house having alleged links with some beneficiaries of the 2G scam may also figure in the first set of charges, reports say.
The CBI has informed the Supreme Court that telecom companies — Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom — were used as front companies by established telecom players to get 2G spectrum illegally during the tenure of Raja.
In its status report submitted before the Supreme Court, the agency had said that Raja will face charges of “cheating, forgery, and corruption”.
The CBI submitted before the court that Swan and Loop hid details about their companies to get spectrum and hence they will be facing charges of “cheating” and “criminal conspiracy”.
The extent of loss to the state exchequer may not be included in this chargesheet as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has yet to complete the process of ascertaining the loss on allocation of spectrum to all operators between 2001 and 2008.
The 2G spectrum scam is billed as the biggest scam of independent India. The Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) of India pegged the revenue loss because of the scam to the national exchequer at a staggering Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
–Agencies