Ex-Tel Secy had warned Raja against advancing cut-off date

Former Telecom Secretary D S Mathur today told a Delhi court that he had warned former Telecom Minister A Raja against advancing the cut-off date to receive applications for the 2G licences as the same may be considered "arbitrary" and could give rise to "legal complications".

Mathur said when he raised the issue, Raja had told him that he would reconsider later his decision to prepone the cut-off date from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007. Mathur, testifying as a prosecution witness before Special CBI Judge O P Saini, said though he did not put his advise on record but he had personally taken the file to Raja.

"I recorded this note (of November 5, 2007) after seeing the order of the then minister (Raja) dated November 2, 2007, as fixing the (cut-off) date of September 25, 2007 may be considered arbitrary and it may give rise to legal complications later on," he said. "When I spoke to the minister, he told me that the aforesaid decision would be reconsidered and he wanted to discuss the matter in future," Mathur said.

The CBI had alleged that Raja, in collusion with others, had decided to keep September 25, 2007 as the cut-off date for considering the applications for UASL to "wrongly benefit" Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka - all facing trial in the case.