CBI Registers Fresh Case In Spectrum Allocation During NDA Regime

The CBI on 19^th  Nov carried out searches at the Vodafone office in Mumbai and Airtel office in Gurgaon after registering a case against former Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and the two telecom service providers for alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation during tenure of Pramod Mahajan as Telecom Minister.The case was registered against former Director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited J R Gupta.

Immediately after registering the case, CBI teams conducted searches at the official premises of Vodafone in Mumbai, Airtel in Gurgaon and residences of Ghosh and Gupta.

The CBI had registered a preliminary inquiry to look into the allocation of spectrum under Mahajan to certain companies beyond the prescribed limit.

The CBI alleged in its FIR that Department of Telecom had increased the base spectrum for telecom companies from 4.4 MhZ to 6.2 MhZ during Mahajan's tenure from 2001 to 2003 and also allocated extra spectrum on subscriber-based criteria.

The agency has already filed a case with regard to alleged conspiracy in the Aircel-Maxis deal during the tenure of the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran.