2G scam: Subramanian Swamy gets Raja-Chidambaram letters on Swan, Unitech

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today handed over a file containing letters exchanged between Union Minister P Chidambaram and former Telecom Minister A Raja to petitioner Subramanian Swamy in connection with the 2G spectrum scam today. Mr Swamy, who is the Janata Party president, has said he is determined to have Mr Chidambaram investigated for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam.

The CBI was ordered to share these letters with Mr Swamy by a special court handling the 2G case trial. Mr Swamy claims these letters were deliberately withheld from court by the CBI. "This file is very crucial for the angle of corruption in the 2G (telecom) scam", he has said. Earlier this week, when the investigating agency failed to follow the directions of the court to hand over the file, it was given a deadline till Thursday.

In 2008, when Mr Raja was Telecom Minister and allegedly used his office to orchestrate India's biggest swindle, Mr Chidambaram was Finance Minister. Mr Swamy contends that the decisions taken by Mr Raja were endorsed by Mr Chidambaram, and he should therefore share responsibility for the scam, and be formally investigated by the CBI.

The file that Mr Swamy has been given access to contains the correspondence between Mr Chidambaram and Mr Raja from September 2008 - when companies began applying for licenses and second-generation or 2G spectrum - to December 2008.  The licenses were awarded by Mr Raja in January 2008 to companies he has been accused of conspiring with. Among them were Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless.

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The file has letters, other official records and memos that include the ministers' views on the permission that Mr Raja granted to Swan and Unitech Wireless to dilute their equity by bringing foreign partners on board.  Mr Chidambaram and other ministers have said that the transactions were legitimate - the companies did not sell stake, they created fresh equity, acceptable according to the guidelines for telecom policy at the time. The profits ran into thousands of crores.  

Experts say the willingness of foreign firms to pay such huge amounts for their equity proves that the licenses had been deliberately under-valued by Mr Raja.

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Mr Raja has been arrested; the CBI is handling the case against him and 13 others accused of criminal conspiracy. The Supreme Court is monitoring the CBI's investigation; a special court headed by Judge OP Saini is handling the trial.