New Delhi, Jun 2 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Thursday said the Tatas had done nothing wrong to get 2G licences, thus giving a clean chit to the industry group in the alleged telecom spectrum scam.
The probe agency that is looking into what is billed as one of the biggest scandals in India told a special court that Tata Teleservices Ltd. had followed all the rules and was not favoured for licenses for mobile phone services using scarce second generation radio waves.
"There was no irregularity in the granting of 2G licences to the Tata group," CBI counsel A.K. Singh told CBI Special Judge O.P. Saini
"Tata was not the beneficiary as they were in this business from earlier. It was some of the new companies who got benefits," Singh told the court.
The CBI court is hearing the 2G case related to the sale of telecom licenses in 2008. The CBI alleges that jailed former communications minister A. Raja had sold the spectrum licences at throwaway prices to private firms, causing a loss of Rs. 30,000 crore to the national exchequer.
However, the government auditor has calculated presumptive loss at Rs.1.76 lakh crore.
The case that has rocked the government is being monitored by the Supreme Court. Along with Raja, the CBI has jailed 13 others, including his party colleague and DMK MP Kanimozhi, for their alleged involvement in the scam.
The 2G case is being probed by multiple government agencies and two parliamentary panels - the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and a joint parliamentary committee (JPC).