Arun Shourie drags Dayanidhi Maran in 2G controversy

Former telecom minister Arun Shourie, who on Friday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the 2G scam probe, said it was in the time of Dayanidhi Maran in the ministry that some new guidelines were incorporated without the recommendations of the regulatory body TRAI.

He said: “It is in Maran’s time that one sentence is put into the guidelines that there should be no cap on operators in a circle,” Shourie said, adding that such guidelines can come only with the recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

He said it happened around 2005. Maran like A Raja was from DMK party as well. He is a kin of of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK) president and present Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi.

Former telecom minister Arun Shourie on Friday presented himself before the CBI and he had informed that he would give the CBI a 50-page document.

Shourie, who was the telecom minister during the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, said he would submit the document giving details of the 2G spectrum allocation case to the investigating agency.

The Comptroller Auditor General (CAG), a government’s spending watchdog, has estimated about Rs. 1.76 lakh crore loss to the state exchequer from lowering the prices of spectrum and giving those to preferred telecom providers.

The scam, which came under the intense scrutiny by the Supreme Court, already forced DMK leader A Raja to quit telecom ministry. He was subsequently arrested by the CBI.