Chennai, Dec 22: Former telecom minister A Raja, who was acquitted by a special court on Thursday of culpability in the 2G spectrum scam, has written to party supremo M Karunanidhi, thanking the latter for his "support".
Raja, who was a Union minister in the Manmohan Singh government in 2008, has penned an emotional letter, in which he said Karunanidhi stood by him throughout. "Who is going to punish those who tried to taint your reputation and your 80 years of public life?" Raja has asked Karunanidhi.
Apart from Raja, Karunanidhi's daughter and DMK MP MK Kanimozhi was also acquitted of all charges by the CBI court on Thursday. He said he places the verdict that vindicates the party's position "at the feet of Karunanidhi" with gratitude, reported CNN-News18, which secured a copy of the letter.
In his letter, he has indicated that the allegations were politically-motivated vendetta, in an attempt to implicate the UPA government, of which the DMK was a part of.
"You preserved me in snow. You stood behind me. I am waiting to hear your words. The spectrum allegations tainted our ideological movement. Spectrum politics gave a handle to those who couldn't shrink your governance. Spectrum battle was conceived was individuals and waged by institutions — including CVC, CBI, JVC," he wrote.
It's first of its kind in world history, he wrote, implying that it's a shame that the UPA government couldn't realise it was trapped in the plot to bring it down.
"In 2009 itself, we gave 59 crore mobile connections against the 60 crore target set before 2012. The spectrum cartel was broken to pave way for the WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter revolution. Calling it a crime and being jailed for this will happen only in India. The press and media, which refused research and showed vulgar interest on spectrum, wouldn't see the social perspective," Raja further wrote.
Raja's letter comes a day after the former Union minister claimed credit for bringing about competition in the telecom sector, which sent mobile call charges to rock-bottom levels.
"My firm belief in the rightfulness of my actions as well as my faith in our nation's justice system has been validated today," he said in a statement.
He said his decision for allocation of spectrum, or radiowaves that carry mobile voice signals, were in line with the National Telecom Policy and recommendations of the sectoral regulator TRAI.
Raja said he had brought a "revolution" in the telecom sector. "I have felt somewhat vindicated all along even prior to this judgment because the beneficial results of my actions are evident to and being enjoyed by the nation's public (especially the poor)," he said.
Raja, Kanimozhi and 17 other accused were acquitted in the politically-sensitive 2G spectrum allocation scam cases by a special court which held that the prosecution "miserably failed" to prove the charges.
Further, Raja debunked the presumptive loss theories in the allocation. In its chargesheet filed in April 2011 against Raja and others, CBI had alleged that there was a loss of Rs 30,984 crore to the exchequer in allocation of 122 licences for 2G spectrum which were scrapped by the Supreme Court on 2 February, 2012.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had put the loss to the exchequer at Rs 1.76 lakh crore. "I brought a revolution in the telecom sector. It is not unknown to the history that a person who did a revolution is often termed as a criminal," he had said immediately after the court announced its verdict.
"Vested interests manipulated public perception by leveraging the media and sensationalising fabricated allegations," he said. "It has been repeatedly proven that the presumptive loss to the exchequer which formed the basis for the conspiracy theorists to run amok, was cooked-up."
Raja said he had full faith in the judiciary and had cooperated fully with the trial and did not seek even single day adjournment. "I also had the courage and confidence to step into the witness box and gave evidence and offered myself for cross examination by the CBI, which is very unusual in criminal trials in India," he said.
Raja claimed that the trial court judge had repeatedly observed that his evidence was "cogent, credible and consistent with the official records, in contrast with the evidence of the prosecution witnesses whose evidence has been rejected as untrustworthy".
He added, "The learned judge has held that it is not just a case of the prosecution failing to prove its allegations, but a case where the prosecution case itself was false, which was my submission from the very first day."
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