Appearing as a prosecution witness in a special CBI court, former telecom secretary D.S. Mathur on Thursday rejected the suggestion that that he had “misled” ex-Telecom Minister A. Raja in 2007 on availability of spectrum.

 “It is wrong to suggest that I misled A. Raja, the then Telecom Minister, Ministry of Communication and Technology (MOC&IT), by endorsing the proposal of Srivastava without assessing the spectrum availability”. He said as a prosecution witness before Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini.

“It is wrong to suggest that I did not assess the spectrum availability because I thought that it was not necessary,” he said.

He said he had endorsed the proposal of A.K. Srivastava, Deputy Director-General in the Department of Telecom (DoT), on announcement of cut-off date for receiving new applications for the Unified Access Services Licences (UASL).

 “I did not approve the proposal of A.K. Srivastava as the same was to be done by the Minister, I just agreed with him. I did not discuss with A.K. Srivastava or Member (Telecom) before agreeing with Srivastava.

“It is correct that the file went to the then Minister only after I agreed with the note of A.K. Srivastava,” he said.

Mathur’s statements on the cut-off dates are significant in 2G case as he had on Monday told the court that he felt that Raja’s decision to advance the cut-off date (from 1 October, 2007 to 25 September, 2007) for receipt of new applications for UASL applications “may be considered arbitrary and it may give rise to legal complications later on.”He said the processing of applications for UASL started after TRAI recommendations were received on August 29, 2007, and the decision taken thereof by the government in November 2007.