Call Chidambaram as witness, record PM’s statement: A Raja in 2G case

Former Telecom Minister A Raja on Monday told a Delhi court that then finance minister P Chidambaram should be summoned and examined as a witness to prove the minutes of a Cabinet meeting that cleared the offloading of shares by Swan Telecom and Unitech to two foreign firms.

"In the meeting, the then finance minister had clarified that dilution of shares to attract foreign investment does not amount to sale of equity. Chidambaram is party to it and I am not calling him as an accused. CBI should have recorded his statement and the next step should be the prime minister. CBI should examine Chidambaram not as an accused but as a witness," senior advocate Sushil Kumar, appearing for Raja, told special CBI Judge OP Saini.

Raja refuted allegations of CBI that Swan Telecom (now Etisalat DB) and Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) Pvt Ltd, alleged beneficiaries of the 2G scam, illegally secured "huge windfall profit" by offloading their equities to UAE-based Etisalat and Norway-based Telenor respectively after getting the Unified Access Services Licenses.

The issue of dilution of shares by these two Indian companies were discussed in the meeting in the presence of Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said.

"Call Chidambaram and ask him whether this meeting took place or not in the presence of the Prime Minister and you (Chidambaram) gave this advice or not. Call him (Chidambaram) and confront him with the minutes of the meeting," the counsel for Raja said.

On alleged loss caused to the exchequer, he said "none less than the prime minister has said on the floor of Parliament that there is no loss."

Raja’s counsel said that the court should call the report of the Cabinet meeting and examine it.

"If you (judge) find that the meeting was attended by him (Chidambaram) then take it on record otherwise leave it," he said.

The decision to allow telecom firms to offload their shares was taken by the Cabinet and only Raja has been singled out, he said, adding that the decisions, taken by the 2003 Cabinet, have been followed by successive governments.

He also accused CBI of taking different stands on the status of probe in the case.

"In the Supreme Court, they (CBI) say the investigation is on and here (in the trial court) they say the investigation is over and frame the charges," Kumar said.

The agency should make their point clear as to whether the probe was over or it is still on.

There are two pillars of CBI's case that the allocation of 2G spectrum caused loss to the state and Raja favoured two companies (Swan Telecom and Unitech) in grant of the licence.

"CBI has failed to prove that there was any loss to the government and it has also failed to prove that Swan Telecom was an associate of Reliance Telecom Ltd," Kumar said.

He said the prosecution was "so impatient" that it filed an "incomplete" charge sheet on April 2 and said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report was awaited.

"Who says there is a loss? Has the government said that there was a loss? Though CBI placed on record the report of expert committee of TRAI but the charge sheet is as incomplete as it was on April 2 and the accused are still in jail," he said.