3rd charge sheet in 2G scam by June 30

CBI Director A.P. Singh on Tuesday told the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the telecom policies from 1998 to 2009 that besides gearing to file the third charge sheet into the 2G spectrum scam by 

June 30, the agency was looking into four specific areas of possible irregularities in grant of telecom licences from 2003.

These include a probe into the alleged delay of two years in the grant of telecom licences to Aircel between 2004 and 2006 when Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran was presiding over the Ministry of Telecommunications.

At a news conference here, JPC Chairman P.C. Chacko said that as per the CBI, though 14 licences were approved to Aircel Maxis in 2004, they were given only in 2006. “The CBI is probing why there was a delay.”

In the course of the briefing, the CBI Director did not mention the names of any former or current Ministers being probed by the agency. The other areas of possible irregularities in the implementation of telecom policies being probed by the CBI are the issue of new Unified Access Service Licences on instructions over the telephone by the then Secretary of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the continued grant of licences on a first-come, first-served basis as per the 2001 policy and allotment of spectrum beyond capacity.

The CBI chief briefed the JPC on the 2G scam probe.