The former Telecom Secretary, Mr Siddhartha Behura, on Wednesday blamed the current RBI Governor, Dr D. Subbarao, for not revising the 2G spectrum price in 2007 as the then Finance Secretary. Mr Behura, who has been jailed for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, claimed he had no role to play except implementing the Government's policy.

However, as reported by Business Line earlier, Dr Subbarao, the then Finance Secretary in a letter dated November 22, 2007, had in fact asked the Department of Telecom to justify how it was taking an entry fee of only Rs 1,650 crore from operators in 2007 as this amount was fixed in 2001.

DoT response

In response, the DoT, in its letter dated November 29, 2007, said that the entry fee was finalised for the unified access regime in 2003 based on the decision of the Cabinet.

Opposing the framing of charges, Mr Behura told the Special CBI judge, Mr O. P. Saini, that Dr Subbarao had decided against revising the entry fee for 2G licence and if he is not an accused in this case, he (Behura) too should not have been put on trial.

“Subbarao finalised the decision taken in the meeting of December 4, 2007, that the policy stood approved and the entry fees need not be revised,” Mr Behura's counsel, Mr Aman Lekhi, told the court.

Arguing that he be discharged in the case, Mr Behura contended that he joined the Telecom Ministry in January 2008 and by then all the major policy decisions, such as those on spectrum pricing, the entry fee and the first-come-first-served policy, had already been decided.

“Neither Subbarao nor D. S. Mathur (former Telecom Secretary) nor any other person from any Ministry are before this court as accused,” said Mr Behura, adding that he should have been made a witness and not an accused as he had no role in finalisation of any decisions relating to the spectrum allocation. Mr Behura's arguments will continue on Thursday.

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