By IANS,
New Delhi: Nine former telecom secretaries, including the jailed Siddharth Behura, will testify next month before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing India’s telecom pricing policy in the backdrop of the alleged financial irregularities in the allotment of second generation (2G) spectrum licences, panel head P.C. Chacko said Wednesday.
Other former secretaries to be quizzed by the multi-party parliamentary probe panel are A.V. Gokak, Anil Kumar, Shyamal Ghosh, Vinod Vaish, Nripendra Misra, J.S. Sharma, D.S. Mathur and P.J. Thomas.
They were telecom secretaries from 1998 to 2008.
The questioning will take place July 7 and 8, Chacko said.
He was speaking to reporters Wednesday after the committee met India’s economic intelligence agencies to hear from them on their investigations into the alleged 2G spectrum licences scam.
The panel heard from Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra, Economic Affairs Secretary R. Gopalan, Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman Prakash Chandra, Enforcement Directorate (ED) chief Arun Kumar Mathur and head of Financial Investigation Unit P.K. Tiwari.
The ED has already put 10 beneficiaries of the 2G scam in the dock.
The directorate, which enforces foreign exchange regulations and prevents money laundering, estimates violations to the tune of over Rs.4,300 crore by telecom firms that got 2G telecom licences allegedly at throwaway prices in 2008.
Those under the ED scanner include Unitech, Swan, Loop, STel, Videocon, Idea, Tata, Sistema Shyam, Alliance Infotech (merged with Etisalat) and Spice (merged with Idea), Chacko said.
“Violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act were found by the ED in the course of their investigation into overseas financial transactions by way of foreign direct investment through purchase of equity shares, convertible shares and convertible debentures by non-resident persons,” Chacko said.
He said 52 people have been quizzed by the directorate so far, and a charge sheet will be filed after the probe teams complete investigations in tax havens abroad.
The JPC meeting Wednesday comes a day after it met Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chief A.P. Singh.
The CBI chief briefed the JPC on its findings into the 2G scam. The agency has arrested former IT and communications minister Andimuthu Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi, the daughter of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi, for their alleged involvement in the scam.
Earlier Wednesday, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman J.S. Sarma made a presentation before JPC members on the telecom policies of India.