CBI hands over 2G file to Subramanian Swamy

The Central Bureau of India on Thursday handed over a file pertaining to the lock-in period relating to 2G spectrum allocation to Janata Party Chief Subramanian Swamy following a court order.

Swamy arrived at the CBI headquarters on Thursday afternoon and met CBI officials who handed over the file to him but the agency later clarified the document is "not relevant" to the ongoing 2G scam investigations.

Expressing satisfaction after getting the file, Swamy said he met the director inspector general and superintendent of police involved in the case and was given nearly 500 pages of   documents which included 34 pages of file notings.

He said he would go through the file and make submission before the special court before November 28.

CBI prosecutor A K Singh had told Special CBI Judge O P  Saini that the agency will give the copy of the file to Swamy by Thursday after he filed an application seeking the document relating to Unified Access Services Licences (UASL) policy on sale of equity (lock-in period) seized by it on October 22, 2009 during a probe.

After the file was handed over to Swamy, CBI said "it's a DoT file dealing with the re-introduction of lock-in period for the  equity held by promoters in Telecom license companies. This condition was not there since the introduction of the UASL regime with effect from November 11, 2003.

"It contains (details of) discussion held during November 2008 to July 2009 culminating in the decision of DoT to re-introduce the licence condition regarding lock-in period.

"The DoT decision in the file is about addition of a license condition which had ceased to exist with effect from November 11, 2003. However, at no point was there any restraint on infusion of fresh equity subject to FDI guidelines.

"The file contains no correspondence between the then Minister of State for Information Technology and Communication (A Raja) and the then Finance Minister (P Chidambaram). The material in the file is not relevant to 2G scam investigation and, therefore, not relied upon by CBI for prosecution."

Chidambaram has publicly stated that the only issue examined by him as Finance Minister in 2007 was if Swan and Unitech were divesting their stake or diluting shares through the issue of fresh equity.

At a meeting where Raja was present, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked Chidambaram whether it was a case of disinvestment or dilution to which the former finance minister told him it was a case of dilution of shares.

Chidambaram had told the prime minister that dilution of shares by 2G licensees to attract FDI did not amount to sale.

Both were cases of dilution of equity by the issue of fresh shares and this did not amount to sale of spectrum.