The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Who gained from 2G spectrum sale?”

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Friday, Oct 30, 2009
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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Who gained from 2G spectrum sale?”

Special Correspondent

Jayalalithaa seeks comprehensive probe

CHENNAI: AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Thursday asked why the valuable 2G spectrum was sold for such throw-away prices, “unless somebody stood to gain by it.”

“This is the question that has been asked by all ever since the scam first hit the headlines. And if somebody had benefited, who was that somebody? Unless the answers to these questions are found out, the CBI probe currently on will not have any meaning,” she said in a statement.

“The Central Vigilance Commission, which felt that the nation had been subjected to a loss of over Rs.60,000 crore through the adoption of a faulty policy in spectrum allocation, had asked the nation’s premier investigating agency to look into the propriety of the procedures adopted for the sale of 2-G spectrum…

“What comes as a surprise is that the Prime Minister of India has not asked [Mr.] Raja to resign. In fact, [Mr.] Raja has even gone on record claiming that he had done nothing wrong and that he had only followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Dayanidhi Maran, also of the DMK, and that everything he did was with the concurrence and approval of the Prime Minister.

“Does Dr Manmohan Singh accept this? Is that why he feels that [Mr.] Raja need not resign?” she asked.

She said that the CBI should not stop with merely raiding a few offices or the residences of a few officials of Department of Telecom. “It has to investigate deeper. It has to investigate Union Minister Raja’s role in the Spectrum allocation scam. It has to find out the beneficiaries of the scam.”

It had to find out how companies like Swan Telecom sold stakes to foreign companies such as Etisalat and ETA Ascon.

She said that only a comprehensive investigation would bring out the whole truth. “Such an investigation will also reveal that it is Star Health Insurance of the ETA Group that has bagged the controversial multi-crore health insurance contract of the Tamil Nadu government. Such an investigation will also reveal that it is the same ETA Group that has registered Star Airlines.”

Ms. Jayalalithaa described as “sordid,” the whole episode relating to the sale of 2G spectrum.

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