The charges against all the individuals indicted in the case include criminal breach of trust; criminal conspiracy; cheating; forgery and select provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, including abetment of offences.
The accused also include the erstwhile Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB), Unitech Wireless Tamil Nadu Private Limited and Reliance Telecom Limited.
According to the Central Bureau of Investigation?s (CBI) charge sheet, the accused parties caused the exchequer loss of revenues amounting to Rs 309.84 billion.
In its order, the court stated that A. Raja, former Minister of Telecommunications and IT, allegedly ?entered into a conspiracy with these accused persons and companies and other unknown persons with the purpose of issuing licences to Swan Telecom and companies promoted by Unitech Limited by manipulating the priority list on the basis of Letter of Intent compliance instead of the existing practice of deciding applications on the basis of the date of applications.?
The court further said that the Rs 2 billion paid by Dynamix Realty to Kalaignar TV through Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables and Cineyug Films Private Limited was not a genuine business transaction, but an illegal gratification paid in lieu of the 2G licences granted to Swan Telecom.
The court also said that apart from granting licences illegally, Raja and Siddhartha Behura, former secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), amended licence conditions to allow intra-circle roaming without having the authority to do so.
This allegedly enabled Swan Telecom to sign a deal with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), after which it sold 45 per cent stake to Etisalat for Rs 42 billion.
Behura and R.K. Chandolia, Raja?s former secretary have also been accused of allegedly transferring two officers of DoT?s Wireless Planning Coordination wing as they had disagreed with Raja?s actions.
