CBI slammed for scaling down spectrum scam loss

Saturday April 02, 2011 09:26:08 PM, IANS

Chennai: Tamil Nadu's opposition parties Saturday slammed the scaling down of the loss to the exchequer due to the spectrum scam in the formal charge filed against disgraced former communications minister and DMK leader A. Raja and others.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier in the day filed in a Delhi court a charge sheet running into 127 pages, along with 80,000 pages of annexure, against Raja and eight other individuals and three firms on the allocation of second generation (2G) telecom spectrum (airwave).

The CBI pegged the loss to the exchequer in the allocation of 2G spectrum to corporates at Rs.30.984 crore. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had put the notional loss to the government in the allocation at Rs.1.76 lakh crore.

"The non-inclusion of Rs.214 crore bribe paid to Kalaignar TV and M.K. Dayalu and Kanimozhi (wife and daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, respectively) in the charge sheet creates suspicion about the government's real intention," AIADMK's Rajya Sabha member V. Maitreyan told IANS.

"The charge sheet running over 80,000 pages (including annexure) makes us doubt the real intention of the government. I don't believe it is a full charge sheet," BJP's Tamil Nadu unit chief Pon Radhakrishnan told IANS.

The CBI raided the office of Kalaignar TV office and also questioned Dayalu and Kanimozhi on the receipt of around Rs.214 crore from Cineyug Films by the channel.

Dayalu and Kanimozhi hold 80 percent stakes in the TV channel while the balance 20 percent is held by its managing director Sharad Kumar.

According to Kalaignar TV, the amount received from Cineyug Films was a loan and was paid back with interest.

On the loss estimation by the CBI, Maitreyan said: "The CBI from the beginning has been pegging the government's loss in allocation of spectrum at a low level."

"It is only the PAC (public accounts committee of parliament) and the JPC (joint parliamentary committee) that have to arrive at the loss figure," Maitreyan added.

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