Court allows Sidhartha Behura to appear before JPC on 12 July

New Delhi: Former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, presently lodged in Tihar jail and facing trial for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam, has been allowed by a Delhi court to appear on July 12 before the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing it. “It is prayed that permission may be granted for his (Behura) appearance before the JPC. The prayer is allowed. Jail Superintendent is directed to produce accused Siddhartha Behura before the JPC on July 12 at 11 am in safe custody,” Special CBI Judge O P Saini said. The court also exempted him from personal appearance before it on 12 July. [caption id=“attachment_36248” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The court also exempted him from personal appearance before it on 12 July. PTI”] [/caption] The court’s order came after a letter dated 25 June  was received from the Tihar Jail regarding Behura’s appearance before the JPC. Behura was arrested by the CBI on 2 February  along with former Telecom Minister A Raja and his personal secretary RK Chandolia and is accused of charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct. Behura was secretary in the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) from 1 January, 2008 to 30 September, 2009 and has been accused of colluding with Raja in rigging the selection of licence awardees. He has, however, maintained that he was merely a civil servant who implemented a decision taken by the minister(Raja) before he became the DoT secretary. PTI