Former telecom minister A Raja, who was at the center of supposedly India's biggest graft case, on Thursday said a trial court acquitting him of all charges proves that the presumptive loss in allocation of 2G spectrum was "cooked-up".
Raja, who was the telecom minister in the Congress-led UPA government when 122 spectrum licences were issued to 8 companies in 2008 on first-come-first-serve basis, said his actions were for the benefit of the masses.
He said his decision to allocate spectrum, or radiowaves that carry mobile voice signals, were in line with the National Telecom Policy and recommendations of the sectoral regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulation Authority of India).
Raja said he had, in fact, brought a "revolution" in the telecom sector.
He went on to thank his party leader and DMK cadre for their unflinching support during the "dark period" of his life , which includes 15 months in jail.
In its chargesheet filed in April 2011 against Raja and others, CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum -- which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on 2 February 2012.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had put the loss to the exchequer at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi, and all other accused were on 21 December, Thursday acquitted in the politically-sensitive 2G spectrum allocation case by a special court, which held that the prosecution "miserably failed" to prove the charges.
Reacting to the verdict, former prime minister Manmohan Singh said the "massive propaganda" against the UPA on 2G spectrum was without any foundation.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called the 2G spectrum allocation a “dishonest and corrupt policy” adding that Congress shouldn’t “"treat the verdict like a badge of honour.”
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