Raja questions CAG report?s accuracy in SC

Former Telecom minister A Raja on Wednesday expressed reservations before the Supreme Court regarding the objectivity of the CAG report, which he said has quoted a ?mind boggling and speculative? figure of Rs 1.76 lak crore as loss in allocation of 2G Spectrum.

Raising questions on the objectivity and accuracy of the CAG report, Raja?s counsel TR Andhyarujina submitted before a bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly, ?It’s a presumptive value of loss which gives a mind boggling figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. The figure is totally speculative.?

Stating that the principle of auditing applied by the CAG is not accepted as standard method of evaluation, the senior advocate said, ?It is the subjective opinion. The subjective opinion is not at all warranted.?

He further pointed that the audit was done for the period 2003 to 2008, while Raja became the Telecom minister on May 16, 2007 and 52 licences were given during the tenures of his predecessors Dayanidhi Maran and Arun Shourie.

Andhyarujina further said the CAG report is “a subjective opinion” which will not bear the judicial scrutiny to the extent that it says that the Department of Telecom failed in its duty to assess the realistic values of licences.

The CAG report has been placed in Parliament and it is being examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he added.

Meanwhile, the central government on Wednesday distanced itself from Raja over the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

According to reports, Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium told the Supreme Court that Raja ?ignored? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?s reservations over the 2G allocation.

?In my opinion, reservations expressed by the Prime Minister ought to have been given more importance on the 2G allocation,? Subramanium reportedly told the apex court.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court has got proof that Raja?s policies were ?not approved? by Law Minister Veerappa Moily too.

Earlier on Nov 23, saving the PM from further embarrassment, the Supreme Court had said that Singh had no intention to block permission to Janata Party chief Subramanium Swamy to prosecute former Raja in the scam.

The government, on behalf of Singh, had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court on the 2G Spectrum scam, arguing that there was no inaction on the PM’s part regarding sanctioning prosecution of former Telecom minister A Raja.

Refuting charges of delay in sanction of prosecution of Raja, the Prime Minister?s Office (PMO) in an 11-page affidavit claimed that action was duly taken on every letter received from former Union minister Swamy seeking permission to act against Raja.

A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report had held Raja ?personally responsible? for costing the national exchequer a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore through ?illogical? sale of 2G telecom spectrum in 2008.