A Raja had dominion over 2G spectrum: Court

Former Telecom Minister A Raja was today ordered to be put on trial in the second-generation (2G) mobile telephony spectrum by a Delhi court which said offence of criminal breach of trust, carrying life imprisonment as maximum sentence, is made out against him as he had the dominion over the costly spectrum.

Besides Raja, Special CBI Judge OP Saini framed charges for substantive offence of criminal breach of trust against former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura saying they both were the political and administrative heads of the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).

"I am prima facie satisfied that accused A Raja and Siddhartha Behura, being public servants, that is, political and administrative heads of the DoT respectively, were having dominion over valuable 2G spectrum, which was disposed of by them in violation of law and which resulted into unlawful gain to the accused companies and receipt of bribe of Rs200 crore by Raja.

"...accordingly charge of conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust by public servant is also made out against all accused and substantive offence of criminal breach of trust is made out only against Raja and Behura," the judge said.

The judge, however, said Raja's former private secretary RK Chandolia, against whom CBI had sought to invoke additional charge of criminal breach of trust, was only assisting the minister in discharge of his duties.