Only followed Raja’s orders: former telecom secretary Behura
26 May 2011
Former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura, seeking bail before the special CBI court hearing the 2G case, on Wednesday sought to put the blame for wrongful allocation of spectrum squarely on his former boss, telecom minister A Raja, and his predecessor, former secretary A K Srivasta.
Behura told the court that he had no role in changing the policy to favour anyone. All decisions relating to spectrum allocation had been during the tenure of Srivastava, and he merely implemented the policy after taking over.
"All the key policy decisions pertaining to the 2G spectrum allocation were taken by Raja and other senior officials much before he (Behura) joined the department on 1 January 2008," Behura's counsel Aman Lekhi told special judge O P Saini.
Attacking Srivastava – a star witness for the prosecution in the case – Lekhi said, "It was Srivastava who helped in formulating the policies. He had a chance to oppose but he chose not to. I (Behura) joined as secretary much after the formulation process of the policy was completed.
"It is a paradox of this case that Srivastava, who should be made an accused, has been made a star witness."
He also accused Raja of making changes in the opinion given by the then solicitor general G E Vahanvati.
