Behura followed Raja's policy, not of govt: CBI to court

Behura followed Raja's policy, not of govt: CBI to court

The CBI opposed the bail plea of former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, an accused in 2G spectrum allocation scam case, saying that instead of following the govt's policy, he had followed the policy of the then Telecom Minister A Raja.

The agency said Behura did not put any check and balance on Raja's "misdeeds" during grant of licences despite having highest executive powers in the Department of Telecommunication.

"He (Behura) followed the policy of the minister (Raja) and not the policy of the government," CBI prosecutor A K Singh submitted before Special CBI judge O P Saini on Thursday.

He said after Behura joined the DoT on 1^st January 2008, he had followed the policy which was not existing till then.

CBI said that being the Secretary of DoT, he was the highest executive officer of the department but he did not implement the policy of the government.

"Making policy is the prerogative of the government but the Secretary and other officials of any department implements it," the CBI prosecutor said.

CBI countered Behura's plea that the Prime Minister was informed by Raja through letters about the process of grant of licences, saying mere informing him did not mean that he got the consent on the issue.

"Mere informing the Prime Minister is not the basis to implement any policy saying that it is the government's policy," CBI said.

The agency also pointed out that Behura had played an active role in giving licences to Swan Telecom, promoted by Shahid Usman Balwa, despite objections raised to its eligibility.

"Behura allowed issuance of LoIs to Swan Telecom despite there being lot of objections to its eligibility criteria. Eligibility of Swan Telecom was in question since it made application for the licences," CBI said.

"He (Behura) abused his official position and, despite objections, allowed Swan Telecom to get LoI and licences without conducting any inquiry as suggested by some officials of the DoT," the agency said adding Behura had played a crucial role in grant of licences to Swan Telecom in Delhi circle.

"Being the Secretary of the Department, Behura acted dishonestly, did not implement the policy of the government and rather connived with the other accused to give undue advantage to companies," CBI submitted.

During the arguments, the agency said that for favouring Swan Telecom, Raja and other accused sat on the file of Tata Teleservices for around a month despite the fact that Tatas had applied for the licences prior to Swan's application for the same.

The court has posted the matter for further arguments on Friday.

Behura on Wednesday sought to put the entire blame on the union cabinet and Raja for the 2G scam saying he cannot be held responsible for implementing the government policy.

He had submitted that it was Raja who "illegally" changed the policy which was not objected to by the cabinet and he continued to "retain the confidence of the Prime Minister and others".