Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 2 
The CBI today filed the first chargesheet against former Telecom Minister A Raja and eight others, including Unitech, Swan Telecom and Reliance Communications, for causing a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the government in the 2G scam involving corruption, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery. 

Besides Raja, the others named as accused in the chargesheet are Raja’s aide RK Chandolia, former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa, director Vinod Goenka, Unitech Wireless director Sanjay Chandra and three officials of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) - Gautam Doshi, Hari Nair and Surendra Pipara.

The CBI’s estimated loss arising from the scam, involving allocation of Spectrum to telecom companies in 2008 at 2001 prices, is less than 20 per cent of the amount arrived at by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which had put the notional loss at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

The chargesheet, running into around 80,000 pages, was filed before the special court of OP Saini, set up to hold the trial exclusively in the 2G scam case for expeditious disposal.

Taking cognisance of the chargesheet, judge Saini issued summons to five of the nine accused and asked them to appear before the court on April 13. Raja, Balwa, Chandolia and Behrua are already in judicial custody.

After going through the FIR, chargesheet, witnesses’ statements and related documents on record, the judge said he was “satisfied that there is enough incriminating material” to proceed against the accused. 

The accused have been booked under various Sections of the IPC, including 120B (conspiracy) 468, 471, 420 and 109, and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Appearing for the CBI, senior public prosecutor AK Singh said the statements of 125 witnesses and 654 documents had been attached to the chargesheet. Among the witnesses were Attorney General GE Vahanvati, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia and 50 senior officials.

The CBI informed the court that it was investigating Kalaignar TV, in which Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi and wife Dayaluammal had a stake, in connection with the scam. 

According to the CBI, the 2G payoff travelled to Kalaignar TV through Balwa’s firm. The others who were likely to be included in the second chargesheet, which would be filed by the end of this month, were Asif Balwa and Rajiv Aggarwal (Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables). The two were arrested on March 29.

According to the CBI, Unitech Wireless is the “biggest beneficiary” of the scam. The Supreme Court is monitoring the CBI investigations into the scam.