Ex-Telecom Secretary extended benefits to Swan Telecom

Former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, who is in jail in connection with the 2G scam, "doctored" the seniority list of applicants to extend "undue" benefits to Swan Telecom in the spectrum allocation, the CBI told the Delhi High Court today.

"The role and complicity of Behura in the case is very clear as he legitimized the application of ineligible firm Swan Telecom Private Ltd and compromised with the seniority list of the applicants to extend undue benefits to it," senior advocate and special prosecutor U U Lalit told Justice Ajit Bharihoke.

Opposing the bail application of Behura, Lalit said "there was only one vacant slot (for grant of spectrum) for lucrative Delhi circle and Swan could not have got license if the accused had acted fairly."

The Swan Telecom, placed at fifth position in the seniority list, could not have walked away with the spectrum for Delhi circle as Spice and Tata were ahead of it, he said.

Because of the "omission and commission" of the accused, Swan Telecom promoted by co-accused Shahid Balwa got away with the spectrum, he said.

Due to the "ill-conceived" design in implementing the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy, a desperate race was created at the office of the DoT here where physical fitness of the representatives of the firms decided the allocation of scarce spectrum, he said.

"The undue haste shown in awarding the UAS licenses to Swan Telecom and deliberate deletion of the last sentence in the draft press release, after being approved by the then Solicitor General, amply indicate the role of Behura in the case," he said.

Meanwhile, Justice Bharihoke asked CBI to provide him a copy of the letter of intent (LoI) issued to Swan Telecom and other documents, if any, on government policy on spectrum allocation for ascertaining alleged acts of the accused.

The arguments on the bail plea of Behura remained inconclusive and would continue on July 21.

Earlier, senior advocate Aman Lekhi, appearing for Behura, said that the "so called" gigantic loss to the state in spectrum allocation was caused due to the government policy and not because of the accused.

A civil servant has no other distinct identity separate from the government of the day whose policies can be tested in Parliament, Lekhi had said, adding Behura had no role in decisions regarding pricing of spectrum, FCFS policy and advancing of cut-off date for submission of applications.

CBI, in its chargesheet, alleged that Raja conspired with others and preponed the cut-off date to September 25, 2007 from October 1, 2007 to ensure better prospects for his favoured companies.

The DoT officials tried to prevent Raja from proceeding ahead with "his design to delete a clause, which would have resulted in reshuffling of the priority from the date of application to time of submission of compliance of
LoI, it said.

Besides Behura, 13 persons including DMK MP Kanimozhi have been arrested so far in the case.

Three companies, Swan Telecom, Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Ltd and Reliance Telecom Ltd have also been named as accused in the case