FORMER telecom minister A Raja, accused in a mammoth fraud case, insisted yesterday that he was innocent and that Premier Dr Manmohan Singh had been aware of his actions as he began his court defence.
On trial in New Delhi along with 15 others including company executives over the allegedly corrupt sale of telecom licences in 2008 Raja’s case has badly shaken Dr Singh’s government.
“They (the police) know they have no case,” said Raja in a statement through his lawyer Sushil Kumar, adding India’s then finance minister P. Chidambaram and Dr Singh had been kept in the loop over the ex-minister's decisions.
Raja is suspected of rigging rules for the sale of second-generation (2G) mobile phone licences to favour certain firms in exchange for bribes and is charged with abuse of power, cheating, forgery and criminal misconduct.
He rejected the charges at the same time as challenging the prime minister to “deny” that he had knowledge of his decisions involving the licence sales.
“I am making it clear I did what I did on legal advice and my understanding of law,” Raja said.
“If the policy pursued by me was wrong, then all former telecom ministers since 1993 should also be in jail with me,” said Raja’s counsel as he read out the statement in the sweltering courtroom, where air conditioning had failed.
The so-called “2G scam” has led to intense pressure on Dr Singh, who has also been tarnished by his alleged failure to prevent the scandal, and cast a shadow over India’s fast-growing telecom sector.
The alleged fraud lost the country up to $40bn (£24.48bn) in revenues, according to the national auditor. Prosecutors at the trial, which began in April, focused on losses identified by the police of around $6.7bn (£4.10bn).
Outside the courtroom, lawyer Kumar said his client, who stood in a white shirt in court, was broke and that there was no possibility of him having taken bribes.
“Raja doesn’t even have the money to pay fees to his lawyer. The media says he has money stashed here and there in Mauritius. Show me the money,” Kumar told reporters.
Raja, 47, who was arrested on February 2, argued all his actions had been in accordance with accepted government policy.
Former “telecom minister Arun Shourie distributed 26 licences while (his successor) Dayanidhi Maran distributed 25 and I (Raja) distributed 122 licences,” Raja said in his statement.
“None of them auctioned the spectrum.”
Raja sold the licences on a first-come-first-served basis, as did the previous telecom ministers, but is alleged to have twisted criteria to favour certain companies which sold on large stakes to foreign firms at higher prices.
The national auditor said Raja should have auctioned the licences to the highest bidder in a transparent process that would have raised tens of billions of dollars more.
“The 2003 cabinet decision says there is no need for any auction. No minister had the guts to overrule this cabinet decision,” Raja’s lawyer said.
“I have done a lot of social good,” Raja’s statement added, asserting he helped kickstart India’s telecom revolution that has led to two-thirds of the country’s 1.2 billion population owning a mobile phone.
“I made the call rates of mobile phones so cheap that even a ‘rickshaw wallah (driver)’ or a maid servant can be seen using them,” Raja said.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded the resignations of Dr Singh and Chidambaram, now home minister, saying Raja’s statements showed the government leadership was aware of the 2G transactions.
The Congress party rejected the BJP’s calls at the same time as saying it would not comment on testimony made in court.
