Cancellation of 2G spectrum licenses has clearly brought out a big scam: Swamy

New Delhi, Feb 2 (ANI): Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday said the cancellation of 2G spectrum licenses by the Supreme Court has clearly brought out the big scam, adding that it was a collective failure of the government, which overlooked warnings given by the Comptroller and Audit General on India (CAG) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on the issue.

"Everyone had warned, including the CAG and the CVC, but the government overlooked it," Swamy told media soon after the apex court quashed 122 spectrum licences granted after January 2008, and asked a trial court to decide whether Chidambaram needs to be probed for his role in the spectrum case.

Swamy further said licenses have been declared as illegal and they stand cancelled, but there is a four-month period in which the companies can enter into negotiations with the government.

"And then, some of the companies have been, who are totally unfit to receive the license, I assume, that means Swan and Unitech, they have been fined and the court has said that the government must now get the market value of these licenses and the profit from the same should be set aside for legal aid and for ex-defence personnel," he added

On prosecution of Chidambaram, Swamy said: "At this stage, since the matter is in the trial court and the matter has been reserved, the trial court is perfectly competent to decide on the matter whether the Home Minister should be proceeded against or not."

"The court has also given another important direction asking the CBI, which is investigating the matter to submit their status report regularly to the Central Vigilance Commission, who will go through this and thereafter advice the court as to whether the CBI is doing all that it should, whether it needs to do something else or not, whether the investigations have been properly going on or not," added noted lawyer and telecom scam petitioner, Prashant Bhushan.

The apex court said there was no need for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to monitor the 2G scam probe.

The apex court verdict were on Swamy's petition seeking a CBI probe into Chidambaram's alleged role in the spectrum scam, and on two pleas filed by Prashant Bhushan seeking cancellation of 2G licences and setting up of a SIT to monitor probe the scam.

Swamy had on January 7 submitted documents seeking prosecution of Chidambaram in the case before a Delhi court.

The telecom scam, one of India's biggest graft cases ever, may have cost 39.57 billion dollars in expected revenue to the public exchequer as per the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India's report. (ANI)