2G SPECTURM SCAM

Introduction:
The 2G spectrum scandal involved officials in the government of India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2Gsubscriptions for cell phones. The shortfall between the money collected and the money which the law mandated to be collected is estimated to be 176,645 crore (US$38.86 billion) as valued byComptroller and Auditor

General of India based on 3G and BWA spectrum auction prices which held in 2010. However the exact loss is disputed, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pegged the loss at 30,984.55 crore (US$6.82

billion) in its first charge sheet filed on 2 April 2011, whereas Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in a response to CBI's query said that the Govt. has actually gained
[3]

3,000 crore (US$660 million) by selling

the spectrum. Kapil Sibal, minister for communications & IT, said in a press conference that there was no loss caused by selling 2G licenses. However in September 2011, CBI argued before the Supreme Court that it was unsafe to read a "no loss" conclusion in the telecom regulator's calculations on irregular spectrum allotment as the methodology adopted admittedly did not take into account the market mechanism.All the speculations of profit, loss and no-loss were put to rest when on 2 February 2012 the Supreme Court of India delivered judgement. The Supreme Court declared the allotment of spectrum as "unconstitutional and arbitrary" and quashed all the 122 licenses issued during tenure of A. Raja, the main accused in the 2G scam case.The court further said that A. Raja "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and "virtually gifted away important national asset". The issuing of licenses occurred in 2008, but the scam came to public notice when the Indian Income Tax Department was investigating political lobbyist Nira Radia. The government's investigation and the government's reactions to the findings in the investigation were the subject of debate, as were the nature of the Indian media's reactions. Much of the credit of bringing this whole scam into the public light (by pursuing it in the court of law) goes to Subramanian Swamy who is the chief petitioner for this case in the court of law.

Background
India is divided into 22 telecoms zones and there are a total 281 zonal licences in the market. According to the telecom policy of India, when a licence is allotted to an operator some start-up spectrum is bundled along with it. The policy does not have a provision for auctioning the spectrum. In year 2008, 122 new second generation (2G) Universal Access Service (UAS) licenses were given to telecom companies at the price of 2001 and on first come first serve basis. As per the chargesheet filled by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) several rules were violated and bribes were paid to favour certain firms while awarding

2G spectrum licenses. The audit report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) says that several licenses were issued to firms with no prior experience in the telecom sector or were ineligible or had suppressed relevant facts. In November 2007 Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh had written a letter to telecom minister A. Raja directing him to ensure allotment of 2G spectrum in a fair and transparent manner and to ensure license fee was properly revised. Raja wrote back to the Prime Minister rejecting many of his recommendations.. In the same month Ministry of Finance wrote a letter to Department of Telecommunications (DOT) raising concerns over the procedure adopted by it but DOT went ahead with its plan of giving 2G licenses. It preponed the cut-off date to 25 September, from 1 October 2007. Later on the same day, DoT posted an announcement on its website saying those who apply between 3.30 and 4.30 pm on that very day would be issued licences in accordance with the said policy. Companies like Unitech & Swan Telecom got licenses without any prior telecom experience. Swan Telecom got the license even though it did not meet eligibility criteria. Swan got license for 1,537 crore (US$338.14 million) and then it sold 45% stake to UAE based company Etisalat for

4,200 crore (US$924 million). Unitech Wireless, a subsidiary of the Unitech Group, got license for 1,661 crore (US$365.42 million) and later sold 60% stake for based company Telenor. Following is the list of companies who got the 122 2G licenses during the tenure of A. Raja as Telecom Minister. (The licenses were later quashed by Supreme Court) Number of license granted Himachal Jammu & Adonis Projects, Nahan Properties, Aska Projects, Volga Properties, Azare Properties & Hudson Properties Unitech were acquired and Remarks 6,200 crore (US$1.36 billion) to Norway

Name Company

of

Telecom which granted

regions license

for was

Haryana, Adonis Pvt. Ltd. Projects Pradesh, Kashmir,

Punjab, 6

Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East) Assam, Bihar, North East, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh 6

by Unitech.

Infrastructure

Unitech Builders & Estates were already subsidiaries of Unitech Group. So in

Nahan Properties Pvt. Ltd.

2008 Unitech had 22 2G licenses. Later in the same year Norway based

(East), West Bengal Projects Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka

company Telenor bought majority stake in Aska Ltd. 3 the telecom company from the Unitech Group. 3 Now it offers services

Volga Properties Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Pvt. Ltd. Maharashtra

under Uninor brand holding 22 pan India licences.

Azure Properties Ltd. Hudson Properties Unitech Builders & Ltd. Unitech Infrastructures Pvt. Ltd. Estates Pvt.

Kolkata

Delhi

Tamil

Nadu

(including

Chennai)

Mumbai

Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal, Pradesh, Kerala, Kolkata, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh Pradesh Loop Pvt. Ltd. (East), (West), Uttar West 21

Telecom Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya East Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Pradesh, North

Datacom Solutions Ltd. Pvt.

Kerala, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, North Maharashtra, East, Tamil Orissa, Nadu 21 Operates under brand name Videocon

Telecommunications Limited

Rajasthan,

(including Chennai), Uttar Pradesh Pradesh (East), (West), Uttar West

Bengal, Delhi, Mumbai

Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Kolkata, Pradesh Pradesh Shyam Limited Punjab, (East), (West), Uttar Uttar West 17 Shyam Telelink Limited & Shyani Telelink Limited operate together with their combined 21 licenses. During late 2008 Russia based group Sistema bought majority stake in the telecom company and now they operate under brand name MTS India.

Telelink Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, North East

Shyani Limited

Telelink Mumbai,

Bihar,

Gujarat,

Himachal Pradesh Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra,

Swan Pvt. Ltd.

Telecom Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh Mumbai (West), Delhi,

In 2008, Swan Telecom merged itself with 13 Allianz Infratech (P) Ltd. During late 2008 Abu Dhabi'sEtisalat bought about 45 percent of the company and renamed it to Etisalat DB Telecom

Allianz (P) Ltd.

Infratech

Bihar, Madhya Pradesh

Assam, Punjab, Karnataka, Jammu Idea Cellular and Kashmir, Idea Cellular bought Spice Communications Ltd. in 2008 for an amount of

North East, Kolkata, West 9 Bengal, Orissa, Tamil

Nadu (including Chennai) Spice Communications Ltd.

2,700 crore (US$594 million). So out of 122 spectrum licenses sold in 2008 Idea

Delhi,

Andhra

Pradesh,

Cellular owns 13 licenses 4

Haryana, Maharashtra

Assam, S Tel Kashmir, East,

Jammu Orissa,

and North 6

In

January

2009, Bahrain

Telecommunications signed a deal with S Tel to buy 49% shares in S Tel for $225

Bihar,

Himachal

Pradesh

million. C Sivasankaran owns the remaining (51%) share.. In May 2009, Sahara

Groupbought 11.7% stake in S Tel In late 2008 promoters of Tata

Teleservices sold 26% equity stake to a Tata Teleservices Jammu and Kashmir, 3 Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo for about 13,070 crore (US$2.88 billion) or an value of

Assam, North East

enterprise

50,269 crore (US$11.06 billion).

Parties accused of involvement

The selling of the licenses brought attention to three groups of entities politicians and bureaucrats who had the authority to sell licenses, corporations who were buying the licenses and media professionals who mediated between the politicians and the corporations. [Politicians

accused

Politicians named as accused in the chargesheet filed by CBI in the Special CBI Court ,allegations levelled against them by CBI and charges framed against them by the Special CBI court. A. Raja : Political career - Political party DMK, 4 times MP, present constituency Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, former Union Minister of State (Rural Development - 1999), former Union Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare - 2003), former Union Cabinet Minister (Environment & Forests 2004), former Union Cabinet Minister (Communication and Information Technology - 2007 & 2009) Allegation - In a joint investigation report prepared by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) the agencies allege that A.Raja could have received 3,000 crore (US$660 million) as bribe for bringing forward the cut-off date for applications for spectrum from the initial 1 October 2007 to 25 September 2007.The deadline switch eliminated many applications, enabling Raja to favour a few with spectrum.The agencies also alleged that he used bank accounts under his wife's name in Mauritius and Seychelles to chanelise the kickbacks he received. A chargesheet filed by CBI alleges that Raja conspired with the accused, subverted the first-come first-served (FCFS) policy and waywardly redefined it to ensure that Swan and Unitech got 2G licences.He didnt auction the 2G spectrum or adopt some other

market-determined methodology to determine its real valuation and instead benchmarked it to a rate discovered in 2001, when the telecom sector was at a nascent stage. Charges - Criminal breach of trust by a public servant under section 409, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting illegal gratification Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011 and lodged in Tihar Jail since then (as of February 2012) Never applied for bail. As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court. M. K. Kanimozhi : Political career - Daughter of 5 time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi. Political party DMK. She is an MP, representing Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Indian Parliament). Allegation - As per the chargesheet filed by CBI Kanimozhi has 20% stake in her family owned Kalaignar TV, her step-mother Dayalu Ammal owns 60% stake in the same channel.CBI alleges that Kanimozhi was an "active brain" behind the channel's operations and she worked along with former telecom minister A. Raja to get DB Realty promoter Shahid Balwa to circuitously route
[

200 crore (US$44 million) to Kalaignar TV. According to CBI, Kanimozhi was

in regular touch with A Raja regarding launching of Kalaignar TV channel and its other pending works. CBI alleges that A Raja was further pursuing the cause of Kalaignar TV not only for getting registration of the company from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting but also for getting it in the DTH operator TATA Sky's bouquet. Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.. Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 20 May 2011. Granted bail on 28 November 2011 after spending 188 days in judicial custody.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Bureaucrats accused
Bureaucrats named as accused in the chargesheet filed by CBI in the Special CBI Court, allegations levelled against them by CBI and charges framed against them by the Special CBI court. Siddharth Behura : Designation - Telecom Secretary when licenses were granted. Allegation - According to the chargesheet filed by CBI, Behura conspired with A. Raja & several other accused. CBI alleges that when the application deadline time was declared as between

3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, Behura allegedly shut counters to physically block other telecom companies. Charges - Criminal breach of trust by a public servant under section 409, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting illegal gratification. Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011 and lodged in Tihar jail since then (as of early February 2012).Applied for bail a number of times but every time bail got rejected. As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court. RK Chandolia : Designation Raja's private secretary when licenses were granted. Allegation - As per the charsheet filed by CBI, like Behura, Chandolia too conspired with A. Raja and several other accused. The agency alleges that when the application deadline time was declared as between 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, Chandolia along with Behura allegedly shut counters to physically block other telecom companies. Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120 B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody (arrested) by CBI on 2 February 2011.Granted bail by the special CBI court 1 December 2011 but on 2 December 2011 High Court took suo motu notice of newspaper reports of the bail granted to Chandolia and stayed it. Chandolia appealed against High Court order in Supreme Court and on 2 January 2012 the apex court extended interim stay on High Court's order.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court. [Corporate
[42]

executives accused

Corporates named as accused in the chargesheet filed by CBI in the Special Court and charges framed against them by the Special CBI court Sanjay Chandra Designation - Former MD, Unitech Wireless Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011. As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court. Gautam Doshi : Designation - Group MD, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group

Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act

Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011,granted bail on 24 November 2011.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Hari Nair : Designation - Senior Vice-President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471.Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011. As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Surendra Pipara : Designation - Senior vice- President, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011 As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Vinod Goenka : Designation - Promoter and Managing Director, DB Realty & Swan Telecom Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120 B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471, fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 April 2011, granted bail on 24 November 2011.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court

Shahid Balwa : Designation Promoter, DB Realty & Swan Telecom Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant Criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471 & fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
, [25]

Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 8 February 2011, granted bail on 29 November 2011.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Asif Balwa (younger brother of Shahid Balwa) : Designation Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471 & fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 29 March 2011, granted bail on 28 November 2011.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Rajiv Agarwal : Designation - Director, Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471, fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 29 March 2011,granted bail on 28 November 2011.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Sharath Kumar Designation Managing Director, Kalaignar TV Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471 & fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 20 May 2011,granted bail on 28 November 2011.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Ravi Ruia : Designation - Vice Chairman, Essar Group Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code. Status - Not taken into custody as yet.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Anshuman Ruia : Designation - Diector, Essar Group Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code. Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Vikas Saraf : Designation - Director for strategy and planning, Essar Group Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code. Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

IP Khaitan : Designation - Promotor, Loop Telecom Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code. Status - Not taken into custody as yet.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court

Kiran Khaitan : Designation - Promotor, Loop Telecom Charges - Criminal conspiracy under section 120 B & cheating under section 420 of Indian Penal Code. Status - Not taken into custody as yet. As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

FILM AND ENTERTAINMENT PERSONS ACCUSED

Karim Morani : Designation - (Promoter and Director, Cineyug Films) Allegation - In the chargesheet filed by CBI the agency alleged that Karim Morani owned Cineyug Films was a part of the circuitous route used by another accuse Shahid Balwa to transfer illegal gratification of 200 crore (US$44 million) to Kalaignar TV of which Kanimozhi,

was a director.According to the chargesheet, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, promoters of DB Realty transferred 209.25 crore (US$46.04 million) to Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables of which

Shahid Balwa's younger brother Asif Balwa was a director.Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables then transferred a sum of 200 crore (US$44 million) to Cineyug Films whose promoter Karim Morani

transferred it to Kalaignar TV Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471, fabrication of evidence under section 193. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - Taken into custody by CBI on 30 May 2011,granted bail on 28 November 2011.As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

CORPORATIONS ACCUSED
Companies named in the chargesheet filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Special court and charges framed against them. Unitech Wireless : Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Reliance Telecom : Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Swan Telecom : Charges - Criminal conspiracy to cause criminal breach of trust by a public servant, criminal conspiracy under section 120-B, cheating under section 420, forgery under sections 468 and 471. Booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act Status - As of February 2012, trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.

Other companies named in the chargesheet are: Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd Loop Mobile India Ltd Essar Tele Holding Essar (Parent group of Essar Tele Holding)

Media persons' dubious role

Main article : Radia tapes controversy Media sources such as OPEN and Outlook reported that two senior journalists Barkha Dutt (Group Editor of NDTV) and Vir Sanghvi (Editorial Director of Hindustan Times) knew that corporate lobbyistNira Radia was influencing the decisions of appointment of telecom minister. Radia wanted A Raja to be made telecom minister.The two magazines made public the telephone conversations between Nira Radia, Barkha Dutt & Vir Sanghvi. Radia's phones were being tapped by Income Tax department. Critics allege that Barkha Dutt and Vir Sanghvi knew about nexus between government and the media industry

but still they supported this corrupt activity and suppressed news reporting the discovery of the corrupt practice. However these people were not named as accused in the chargesheet filed by CBI.

Licenses quashed
On 2 February 2012 Supreme Court of India quashed all 122 spectrum licences granted during the tenure of former communications minister A Raja. The allocation of 2G spectrum was described by Supreme Court as "unconstitutional and arbitrary" The bench of Justice GS Singhvi & Justice AK Ganguly imposed fine of 5 crore (US$1.1 million) on Unitech Wireless, Swan telecom and Tata Teleservices and 50 lakh

(US$110,000) fine on Loop Telecom, S Tel, Allianz Infratech and Sistema Shyam Tele Services Ltd. The Supreme Court's ruling said the current licences will remain in place for four months, in which time the government should decide fresh norms for issuing licences. The Supreme Court said in its order that then telecom minister A. Raja "wanted to favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer" and listed seven steps he took to ensure this happened. According to the Supreme Court of India the seven steps were : 1. After taking over as telecom minister, Raja directed that all applications received for UAS licences should be kept pending till receipt of the Trai's recommendations. 2. The recommendations made by Trai on 28 August 2007, were not placed before the full Telecom Commission which would have included the finance secretary. The notice of the meeting of the Telecom Commission was not given to any of the non-permanent members though Trai's recommendations for allocation of 2G spectrum had serious financial implications and it was therefore necessary for DoT to take the finance ministry's opinion under the Government of India (Transaction of Business) Rules, 1961. 3. The DoT officers who attended the Telecom Commission meeting held on 10 October 2007, had no choice but to approve Trai's recommendations, since they would otherwise have "incurred" Raja's "wrath". 4. Since Cabinet had approved recommendations made by the Group of Ministers, the DoT had to discuss the issue of spectrum pricing with the finance ministry. But, since Raja knew that the finance secretary had objected to the allocation of 2G spectrum at rates fixed in 2001, he did not consult the finance minister or other officials. 5. Raja brushed aside the law minister's suggestion that the matter should be placed before the empowered group of ministers. Also, within hours of the receipt of the suggestion made by the PM in his letter dated 2 November 2007, that keeping in view the inadequacy of spectrum, transparency and fairness should be maintained in allocation of the spectrum, Raja rejected it saying that it would be unfair, discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious to auction spectrum to new

applicants because it would not give them a level-playing field. He also introduced a cut-off date of 25 September 2007, for considering applications though only the previous day a DoT press release had said 1 October 2007, would be the last date. This arbitrary action of Raja "though appears to be innocuous was actually intended to benefit some of the real estate firms who did not have any experience in dealing with telecom services and who had made applications only on 24 September 2007, i.e. one day before the cut-off date fixed by the C&IT minister on his own". 6. The cut-off date of 25 September 2007, decided by Raja on 2 November 2007, was not made public till 10 January 2008, and the first-come-first-served principle followed since 2003 was changed by him at the last moment through a press release dated 10 January 2008. "This enabled some of the applicants, who had access either to the minister or DoT officers, get bank drafts prepared towards performance guarantee of about Rs 1,600 crore". 7. "The manner in which the exercise for grant of LoIs to the applicants was conducted on 10 January 2008 leaves no room for doubt that everything was stage managed to favour those who were able to know in advance change in the implementation of the first-come-first-served policy." As a result, some firms which had submitted applications in 2004 or 2006 were pushed down in the priority and those who had applied between August and September 2007 succeeded.

TELECOM COMPANIES AFFECTED BY CANCELLATION OF LICENSES

The table below shows list of companies whose license were cancelled
[186][187]

Number Name of company Parent group licenses cancelled

of

Uninor

Joint venture between Unitech Group of India and Telenor of Norway Unitech Group

22

Sistema TeleServices now MTS India

Shyam Limited,

Joint venture between Shyam group of Indian and Sistema of Russia

21

Loop Mobile formerly BPL Mobile

Owned by Khaitan Holding Group

21

Number Name of company Parent group licenses cancelled

of

Videocon Telecommunications Limited Owned by Videocon group of India 21

Etisalat-DB

Joint venture between Swan Telecom of India and Etisalat of UAE

15

Idea Cellular

Aditya Birla Groupof India (49.05%), Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia (15%) & Providence Equity(10.6%)of USA

13

Joint

venture

between C Bahrain. After its

Sivasankaran of the 42.7% Supreme stake

India Court's to C 6

and Batelco of S Tel

decision Batelco sold

Sivasankaran company Sky City Foundation Ltd. for $175 million

Tata Teleservices

Owned by Tata Group of India

AFTER EFFECTS OF SUPREME COURT'S VERDICT

Batelco quits India - Batelco, the Bahrain telecommunications company holding 42.7% stake in S Tel declared that it has agreed to sell its entire holding to Indian partner Sky City Foundation Ltd for 65.8 million Bahraini dinar ($174.5 million). Telenor dumps and sues Unitech - On 21 February 2012 Telenor, majority stakeholder in Uninor, dumped its Indian partner Unitech and sued it seeking indemnity and compensation.

Etisalat sues Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka - On 23 February 2012 Etisalat of the Etasalat-DB Telecom sued Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, promoters of its Indian partner DB Realty for fraud and misrepresentation.

RESPONSE TO SCAM
Opposition demands Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) - As soon as the Indian media started citing Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report which pegged the loss at 1.76 lakh crore,

the Indian opposition parties unanimously demanded formation of Joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate 2G scam. However the Indian government rejected the demand of opposition. Later when the winter session of parliament began on 9 November 2010, opposition again pressed for (JPC) but once again the demand was rejected. The opposition's demand for (JPC) gained further momentum when Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report was tabled in Parliament on 16 November 2011. The opposition blocked parliament proceedings and again pressed for JPC. With Govt again rejecting the demand there was logjam in parliament. Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar tried to break the logjam but her efforts didn't bear any fruit. Finally the winter session of parliament concluded on 13 December 2010 . The plan was to introduce 22 new bills, take up 23 pending bills for consideration and passing and withdraw three bills but that didn't happen because the parliament was allowed to function for only 9 hours. In February 2011, after resisting the Opposition demand for over three months, the government finally agreed to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the 2G spectrum allocation issue. The government announced it formally on 22 February 2011. Jayalalitha accuses M. Karunanidhi - In early November 2010 Jayalalithaa accused the state chief minister M Karunanidhi of protecting A. Raja from corruption charges and called for A. Raja's resignation. By mid November A. Raja resigned. CAG issues show-cause notices - In mid November the comptroller Vinod Rai issued show-cause notices to Unitech, S Tel, Loop Mobile, Datacom (Videocon), and Etisalat to respond to his assertion that all of the 85 licenses granted to these companies did not have the up-front capital required at the time of the application and were in other ways illegal. Some media sources have speculated that these companies will receive large fines but not have their licenses revoked, as they are currently providing some consumer service.