DoT does not have 2G letters between PM and Raja: Mathur

Former Telecom Secretary D S Mathur on Tuesday told a Delhi court that he did not find the Department of Telecom officially processing some key letters on the 2G spectrum allocation issue, exchanged between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and erstwhile Telecom Minister A Raja.

Mathur told Special CBI Judge O P Saini that Raja had received one letter from Prime Minister on November 2, 2007 and had written back two letters to the PM the same day. None of these letters were officially processed by DoT, he said.

"I have been shown a letter dated November 2, 2007, received from the Prime Minister and addressed to A Raja, the then minister in the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. I have not seen this letter being processed in any file of DoT," he said.

"I have been shown two letters, both dated November 2, 2007, written by A Raja to the prime minister. I have not seen  these letters (too) having been processed in any DoT file," said Mathur, deposing as a key CBI witness in the 2G case.

The former telecom secretary said he did not know about another letter of December 26, 2007 either, written by Raja to the Prime Minister as this too was not processed in any of the DoT file.

Raja's letters to the PM, written on November 2, 2007, pertained to the cut-off date for applying for 2G licences. He had also written to the PM on December 26, 2007, detailing procedures to be adopted for distribution of Letter of Intents (LoIs) and first-come-first serve (FCFS) basis.

Through a letter dated November 2, 2007, Raja had apprised the PM that due to receipt of unexpectedly large number of applications for the 2G spectrum allocation, the cut-off date of October 1, 2007, announced on September 24, 2007 was preponed later to September 25, a step that, the Central Bureau of Investigation alleges, had been taken to favour some private telecom firms.