2G spectrum scam: CBI Director appears before JPC

New Delhi, June 7 (PTI) Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI), India's premier investigation agency,
Director A P Singh Tuesday appeared before the Joint
Parliamentary Committee looking into the 2G spectrum issue to
brief it on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and
spectrum during the period from 1998 to 2009.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the
2G scam had sought to know from the CBI Director details of
the allocation of pricing of telecom licenses in this period.
At the last meeting of JPC on June 30, Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai had also briefed the panel on
the issue.
The CAG had then come in for some tough questioning on
its presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer in
2G spectrum allocation with some members questioning its
mandate of looking into a policy decision for arriving at the
figure.
The CAG, in a report to Parliament last year, had
pegged presumptive loss to the exchequer on 2G spectrum
allocation at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. The findings triggered a
political storm and subsequent events led to the resignation
of the then Indian Telecom Minister A Raja.
India's current Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal had
dubbed "utterly erroneous and without any basis" the estimated
loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore, arrived at by the CAG on account
of 2G spectrum allocation.
According to the CBI charge sheet in the 2G spectrum
allocation case, the loss to the exchequer is pegged at
Rs 30,984 crore.