By IANS,
New Delhi: A Delhi court Monday directed the CBI to submit documents relating to the resolution passed by three telecom firms for seeking additional spectrum during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge O.P. Saini, who was to take cognizance of the chargesheet filed against mobile firms Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Sterling Cellular for alleged irregularities in allocation of excess spectrum during the NDA regime, has now posted the matter for hearing Feb 19.
The court asked the CBI that “these telecom firms must have approached the government first for seeking additional spectrum and they must have also passed a resolution in this regard” and sought the related documents.
On Dec 21 last year, the probe agency named former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and the three telecom firms as accused in the chargesheet for criminal conspiracy and charges under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act for causing a loss of about Rs.846 crore to the national exchequer.
The agency told the court that additional spectrum was allotted July 17, 2002 to Bharti Cellular (now Bharti Airtel) and Sterling Cellular (now Vodafone Mobile Service) for the Delhi metro area, and Hutchison Max (now Vodafone India) for Mumbai metro area.