CBI gives P. Chidambaram a clean chit

In late September, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given the Home Minister, P. Chidambaram a clean chit. The CBI robustly advocated P. Chidambaram in the legal proceedings of the Supreme Court, asserting he could not be blamed of not taking any actions to avert the 2G spectrum distribution scam or revoke licenses when he was leading the charge of the Finance Ministry. Revoking of licenses, being a chief policy decision, could have been done only by the government and not by a single person, Mr. Chidambaram in this case. Mr. Venugopal alleged that former Telecom Minister A. Raja jumped the gun and issued Letters of Intent to telecom companies on January 10, 2008. P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister would have not been able to revoke the licenses all by himself since the matter happens to be a key policy subject of the Union Government. “It is not a simple matter to come to a decision when proceedings were a part of it as well as a result of cancellation and you cannot put together criminality against the then Finance Minister,” Venugopal added.