2G scam: Supreme Court to hear bail petitions of Chandolia, Behura

New Delhi, Feb.24 (ANI): The Supreme Court will hear the bail petitions of R.K. Chandolia and Siddharth Behura on Friday in connection with the 2G spectrum scam case.

Chandolia was former telecom minister A Raja's private secretary, while Behura was the telecom secretary who signed on the files that formalised the sale of 2G licences.

Reports say it was Chandolia who interacted with licensees who got the 2G spectrum. He has been charged with criminal conspiracy and cheating. Chandolia was arrested along with Raja by the CBI on February 2, 2011.

The 2G spectrum scandal involved government officials illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones.

The shortfall between the money collected and the money which the law mandated to be collected is estimated to be Rs.176,645 crore or about 38.86 billion dollars, as valued by Comptroller and Auditor General of India based on the 3G and BWA spectrum auction prices which existed in 2010.

However the exact loss is disputed, as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pegged the loss at Rs.30,984.55 crore or 6.82 billion dollars) in its first charge sheet filed on 2 April 2011.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India claims that the government actually gained Rs.3,000 crore or 660 million dollars by selling the spectrum.

All the speculations of profit, loss and no-loss were put to rest when the Supreme Court of India declared the allotment of spectrum as "unconstitutional and arbitrary" and on February 2, 2012, quashed all 122 2G licenses issued during A. Raja's tenure as minister. (ANI)