Pramod Mahajan's Telecom Ministry caused a loss of rs 508 crore

New Delhi - In a move that might give the UPA government a tool to attack the opposition, a note sent by the CBI to the Union Law Ministry alleges that the late Pramod Mahajan, the Telecom Minister in the BJP-led NDA regime allotted spectrum in ‘undue haste with a malafide intention’.
 
English newspaper DNA, which accessed the CBI document, reported on Friday that the note further alleges Mahajan and some senior officials in the Telecom Ministry caused a loss of rs 508 crore to the exchequer by favouring private companies like Bharti Cellular and Hutchison Max (later renamed as Vodaphone).

Since Mahajan is not alive, the BJP leader’s name has not been mentioned as an accused in the CBI note, which refers to him as ‘an accused person not chargesheeted.’
 
“Mahajan’s ‘patent and undue haste pursuant to the criminal conspiracy hatched’ by the public servants Shyamal Ghosh (the then telecom secretary) and the accused telecom companies, Bharati Cellular Ltd,” was done keeping in view of the IPO of Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd” during this period,” the note says.

The central probe agency believes that Mahajan took the decision to allocate additional spectrum on January, 31, 2002 “keeping in view of the urgency of the on-going IPO of Bharati Tele-Ventures Ltd which was opened on January, 28, 2002 and closed on February, 2, 2002, in order to favour” the company.