CBI to probe if Raja armtwisted Swan Telecom - The Economic Times

The Supreme Court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe if the Government armtwisted telecom company S Tel to give up its claim for a pan-India mobile permit. The court also directed CBI to examine the investment made by UAE's Etisalat into Swan Telecom despite certain ministries objecting to the deal on security grounds. Both the Home and Finance ministries had opposed the deal and had asked the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to reject the investment by UAE-based telco into Swan.

A bench comprising Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly had on Thursday directed the agency to probe these matters and report to it by March 15. Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing on behalf of NGO petitioner Centre for Public Interest Litigation alleged that the Telecom Department's directive on March 5, 2010, cancelling STel mobile permits, had forced the company to drop its case against the Government . He alleged this resulted in S Tel telling the Supreme Court that it was willing to wait for the Government to award it a pan-India permit and airwaves. Bhushan's allegations had led to Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising furnishing documents related to the S Tel case earlier this week. "File placed by the Additional Solicitor General says something more.

It tells about a new dimension which is all together different" , the bench had said on Wednesday. S Tel' had applied for pan-India mobile permits but was given the nod to launch services in only 6 circles , This was because, former telecoms minister A Raja had arbitrarily announced that the first-come , firstserved basis for allocating telecom licences — which come bundled with 2G spectrum — will only apply to companies that applied before September 25, 2007. This was despite Raja and DoT announcing earlier that the cutoff date for filing applications was October 1, 2007. The Delhi HC had in 2009 ruled in S Tel's favour, in what turned out to be a major embarrassment for the Communications Ministry. The court also set aside September 25, 2007, as the cut-off date for granting telecom licences and opened up a Pandora's box for the government , exposing Raja's move to award licenses selectively to a handful of companies.