Former telecom minister A Raja on Monday told a special CBI court here that all decisions on the allocation of the 2G spectrum taken during his tenure were in concurrence with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “I did not take any unilateral decision, but acted on the proposals of DoT and discussions with other cabinet ministers and the then solicitor general and after properly apprising the Prime Minister and taking his concurrence. My actions do not amount to abuse of official position or any other offence,” Raja told special CBI judge O P Saini.
Deposing before the court, Raja said that monitoring of 2G scam probe by the Supreme Court led the CBI to investigate the case in a predetermined manner and there was no loss to the exchequer as claimed by CBI. “I was not given an opportunity of hearing by the Supreme Court. The flawed CAG report made the issue sensational without even taking into account the views of the DoT and without properly appreciating government policy and procedure,” he said.
“There was a complete ignorance of policy formation and government functioning by the investigating officers. Adverse media publicity also contributed to the case against me,” Raja said. The court concluded recording of Raja’s statement during which 1,718 questions were posed to him. On being asked as to why some of the prosecution witnesses had deposed against him during recording of their testimonies earlier, Raja said that they had “done so under fear of being made accused in this case”.
On allegation by former corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, a CBI witness in the case, regarding allocation of 2G licences to accused company Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd, Raja said he had approved the grant of licences to all firms only after its file was “proposed” by the DoT.